Thieves Like Us
by olirulz111
Summary: Alex Cooper has struggled to become the master thief his dad was, weighed down by the unreachable standards he set long ago. When a mysterious thief wants to help him, Alex must learn to overcome the biggest obstacle he has ever known… himself; as well as a few others. Sequel to Hide and Seek.
1. Not Like Me

**Disclaimer: ****Sly Cooper is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC. I do not own the aforementioned company. No financial gain will be made of any sought from this work, which is done for entertainment purposes only; unless you don't find it entertaining, in which case I didn't intend for it to be entertaining at all.**

* * *

**Chapter 1 – …Not Like Me**

**Kensington, London, England. 7:03am, 3****rd**** November 2032.**

Tim McSweeny was never like his father. Where his dad used to bash peoples heads in for a living in a previous iteration of the Cooper gang, his son was the opposite. Tim made the decision to save lives instead of end them by becoming a doctor before becoming specialised in remote robotic surgery. He would sit in a room nearby at his clinic, holding the two controls with buttons attached to the metal joysticks to perform the movements needed to complete complicated surgeries such as removing tumours and cancers, which are still on the rise. The patient could be on the other side of the world and be connected to his workstation, but this morning he was called in to save a patient in Turkey who needed to have an artificial valve inserted into his heart to keep the artery from collapsing in on itself, thus preventing blood from flowing eventually leading to death. Most people would think this is an incredibly hard job to do, it is, but it's nothing like what he's had to put up with over the past 10 years.

In an act of good will and a gesture of thanks for financially being set up already thanks to the exploits of his father working in Connor Cooper's gang, he adopted Alex and Erin Cooper; twins that have probably seen more action than most people many times older. They were eight at the time, having been shielded by their parents as they evaded law enforcement; they saw Interpol capture their parents in the remote north west of France. The first he knew about it was when he received a mysterious phone call about what he needed to do by someone who claimed to have worked with Sly Cooper, their dad, now dead. Dead, a lethal cocktail of sleeping chemicals injected in fear by his captors to prevent his inevitable escape, but this fact is very much hidden from the rest of the world. Officially, he is still in prison, reflecting on the illegality of his crimes. Tim was told by this person it was of utmost importance that he adopt them in order to protect the Cooper line for this generation before they are assimilated into society working boring desk jobs in an office tower. He didn't know how to be a parent; he was single as well and no children of his own so he was as inexperienced as possible.

However, much like everyone faced with the prospect of children, he learnt how to cope with these very special kids. Alex caused the most hassle for him in that he was less disciplined than his sister Erin, especially when he was younger. But as he grew older he realized that in order to climb the thieving ladder, his name could only get him so far and that he'd have to work for it as much as anyone would need to get what they want. In school, he was struggling between tests but that didn't make him dumb. He never thought that the things in school really mattered to his career path, except for physical education perhaps. He would rather learn how to climb up poles faster and know what makes a painting worth so much rather than how to anti-differentiate a logarithm. This was a stark contrast to Erin, who soaked up knowledge like a sponge. She didn't really mind if it was about Victorian poetry or how silicon is mined, every little bit of information seemed to matter for her in the hope it may be useful one day. She was the model student, smart, punctual, respectful. But she was also shy, preferring to keep to herself rather than interact with people who she considered unintellectual and ignorant of facts.

As soon as Alex could get out of school, he did. At the end of year 10, when he was 16, he left London and began to travel. He wanted to see as much of the world considering he thought that he would be all over the place in future, he may as well take in some of the sights and perhaps make some contacts along the way. Alex thought that he could find jobs along the way to bankroll his travels, but unlike in the Thievius Raccoonus, his family's treasured tome holding the secrets of special thieving techniques and stories of their exploits, which told him to go on TheifNet, he could hardly believe to find that it didn't exist anymore. ThiefNet, the once thriving underground website hidden in the dark corners of the Internet called the deep web, had been shut down. The story goes that police began to assume identities and learn of people's plans and therefore catch them before they even committed the crime. So the only way he thought was to go actively searching for them in foreign cites he travelled to. The things he did weren't pretty, and they didn't even raise enough money. So he usually had to swallow his pride and call back home and beg for money from Tim, which he would wire to his bank account.

Erin meanwhile was attending university, Oxford nonetheless, studying engineering. Because if there was knowledge that she really wanted, it was how things worked. Thieving was something that she hasn't considered doing during school, it is the domain of Alex and the probably wouldn't be enough room for two Coopers in the world of thievery. It's not that she didn't have the ability, in fact she always thought that she could be much better than Alex, who knew this as well; but it wasn't as interesting or as captivating for her as it was for Alex who would intently listen to any mention of past heroics from his father.

Meanwhile, in the Tim's office, the phone rings right in the middle of the operation. Tim goes and turns off the communications with the doctors he is assisting and answers the phone, seeing that he knows who is calling.

"Answer call." Tim commands and the phone call begins.

"Alex, I'm the middle of an operation." Tim explains in his English accent.

"Sorry, I just wanted to tell you that I'm in town and I'm going to be staying at home for a bit." Alex says.

"Finished your trip?" Tim asks as he props up the artery, holding it open for the valve to be inserted.

"I don't know, I'm taking a break from travelling and I'm just going to focus on London for now." Alex reasons.

"Are you broke? Is that why you're returning?" Tim asks.

"Not really." Alex answers, not wanting to admit it.

"Admit it." Tim insists, he can sense the hesitation through the phone lines.

"Yeah, I'm broke, again." Alex admits plainly.

"Maybe this time you can get a more stable job that pays an income you can live off, I may have room for an office clerk if you are interested." Tim offers.

"No thanks, I was never cut for the boring day jobs people work so that I can be miserable for 5 days a week just for 2 days of pleasure." Alex explains.

"I love my job, find one that you like and you'll never have to work a day in your life." Tim answers.

"I have a profession that I love, but it's not working out as I hoped but I'm not giving up." Alex says.

"Just take a break from it all, a couple of months, work in my clinic and you can learn what people do in order to earn money." Tim offers. "If you don't then I'm not giving you any more money. You have to earn it now, no free handouts anymore."

"Ok, fine, just give me some time to think." Alex replies.

"When you return I want an answer, okay?" Tim asks.

"Okay." Alex replies.

"Goodbye." Tim says. "End call."

Tim then turn back on the communications with the hospital and the nurses next to the patient whose voices are translated perfectly from Turkish as they speak via computer. It takes another 35 minutes to finish the operation, which allows Tim to leave his clinic and have another cup of coffee as well as a proper breakfast at a real café instead of a takeaway breakfast he grabbed as he rushed to be on time.

* * *

"Is that him?"

"Of course it is, have you traced the call?"

"He's waiting in Paris for the 7:47am train to St. Pancras from Gare du Nord"

"Have a car waiting for him when he arrives in London."

"Certainly."

"Then I will see how capable he can really be."


	2. The Untriumphant return

**Chapter 2 – The Untriumphant Return**

**The 7:47am train to London from Paris, England. 10:03am, 3****rd**** November 2032.**

Staring outside at the industrial buildings that whiz past at 300km/h, Alex Cooper can't help but think how much life can be like a blur and pass him by so quickly. If he ever wants to get his life on track, he has to start somewhere. Accepting that job offer from Tim seems to be the option for him right now, even if he paid a low wage it would still represent some sort of stable income instead of the sporadic payments from jobs he would do from delivering packages to scouting places. Nothing big came up, only small jobs. It was doing this process that he realized that his name carried zero weight in any discussion. 'You're a Cooper, it makes no difference' many of them said. While it hurt for him to hear that, it only spurred him on to try and become better, knowing that there would be no free pass to the top.

The usual cold and bitter weather of England seeps inside of the train despite the best attempts of controlling the temperature, so Alex simply changes the length of his blue top by pinching the end of the sleeve and pulling it down to a three quarter length before doing the same with his other sleeve. His tight plain blue shirt has adjustable sleeves due to the nanotechnology inside the fabric, it allows the wearer to easily change the length of their sleeves without having unsightly scrunched up sleeves. No longer does he need both long and short sleeve shirts when he has both in the one, but it's not that this technology is unique for him, it's not an uncommon accessory to see people wear nowadays. He could have had the same with his matte light grey skin tight shorts, that have large pockets on the sides (useful for stashing loot), so he could have long pants as well as short. But he never found his knees being cold especially with the thick coating of fur around the lower leg to keep him warm as the seasons turn towards winter. The dark grey fur drapes over his footwear; black, flat soled shoes that are extremely light whilst also being very flexible which helps as he curls his feet around a pole or on a wire to balance thanks to the graphene lining in the sole.

On the train, and indeed the carriage carrying Alex, most of the commuters are wearing suits making the cross country commute to do business dealing before returning home in the same day despite the advances in telecommunications. It's why most of the train is empty, only 30% of the seats are full. Computer's had grown more and more powerful according to Moore's law as well as internet speeds became faster and faster. This makes working from home a much more viable option than in the past as well as reducing the amount of business trips made, saving money in the process. Petroleum had grown more expensive as governments, wanting to actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, incrementally increased the price of petrol to wean people off this habit. Petrol prices had rose to over 5 pounds a litre in England, making driving as well as air travel prohibitively expensive and only a thing for the wealthy unless the vehicle in question is electric, much like this train and most of the vehicles on the road nowadays.

The train slows down to a crawl as it approaches the station, a fusion of old and new architecture with it's brick walls and large ornate clock looking over the sea of glass and stainless steel below. Alex prepares himself by getting the two items of luggage he has taken over his travels: a large backpack that carries everything that he needed; clothes, identification, money, everything but one. That one item, more valuable than the entire contents of the backpack, rests inside a specially made rectangular case no more than 1.2 metres long and only 10cm high. Most people would think it's an electric guitar perhaps, but it's not, what use is an electric guitar in the world of thievery? Inside is his cane, surrounded by foam padding to protect it from knocks and bumps in transit, made from carbon fibre. He has another cane, the one that his dad used but it's too sentimental to take with him along with the real copy of the Thievius Raccoonus, those items he gave to his sister Erin to protect, she was the only one he could trust to keep them safe. Alex keeps a copy of the Thievius Raccoonus with him, but it's not like having the real thing.

"Welcome to London, the time is 10:09am and we will be disembarking shortly. Please take all of your items with you and we thank you for choosing this 7:47am service to travel to London this morning." The head of the cabin crew announces as the train inches it's way into the correct position to stop. Alex is already waiting by the door with the large backpack on his back and the case in his hand. As soon as the doors open, Alex steps out from the carriage and walks straight for the travelator to find the exit. But once he gets to the top, he spots someone wearing a suit and black tie, holding a board up with his name on it waiting down at the bottom. Alex knows that he didn't order a car to pick him up, so he grabs his phone out of his pocket and rings up Tim to check all the while he moves closer to the stranger. The phone rings, but he doesn't pickup. He's already called during one surgery today; therefore the walrus must be in one right now and not in a position to be disturbed. He spots the tan furred Labrador and analyses him from a distance, he can't see a firearm or a weapon on him, so he's not an assassin in disguise. Who would want him dead anyway? When he gets to the bottom, he look for the next place to walk so he can get away from this stranger, but he follows and approaches him, running to catch up with him.

"Mr. Cooper" He says from behind but Alex ignores him, he knows not to go with someone that approaches him.

"My employer wishes to acquire your services." He insists, sounding desperate, so Alex continues walking towards the taxi rank.

"He said it must be you." The chauffer insists. Alex takes one look back at him and stops, just to get him off his back.

"If you want a thief, there are many much better than me." He whispers to the chauffer.

"My employer says it must be you. If you don't come, I'll be fired." The chauffer warns.

"I'll send my condolences." Alex says coldly as he begins to walk off again. But before he has taken two steps, the chauffer has blocked his way.

"Please." The chauffer begs before reaching into his suit pocket, Alex readies himself to disarm the perceived gun he think he has in his jacket but it's an envelope. "This is an upfront payment, 2000 Euros, please accept it and let my employer talk to you."

Alex becomes more sceptical, but the contents of the envelope are genuine. It becomes clear that they really want his services, 2000 euros is more than what he was paid for doing crumby jobs overseas.

"Show me the car." Alex says, still sceptical but intrigued. He doesn't know of anyone who has contacted him about a job offer and was ready to just bolt away, but 2000 euros certainly talks it's own very persuasive language. He follows the chauffer to the car, a luxurious black sedan with incomparable lustre on the paintwork. Even in the gloomy English weather, it reflects every beam of light brightly. The chauffer opens the boot for him where he places his backpack, the case it too long for the boot so he slides across the width of the back seat in the foot well. It was better for him that it was too long, he doesn't like to leave it out of his sight, not for a second. The grey leather seats are so much more comfortable than any other piece of furniture he's ever sat on, it's like it's cradling his body softly as the supple leather contorts to fit the shape of his body. But it's not the most striking feature of the car, as he will soon find out.

The chauffer gets in the driver's seat and shuts the door before handing over two items to Alex from the front seat, a pair of goggles and a set of headphones.

"Put them on, it's the only way you'll see the holographic projection in here." The chauffer instructs before he turns on the cars engine, not that he could hear it, the electric motor turns on without the slightest hint. Alex first puts on the goggles that looks like a pair of ski goggles with the completely silver finish on the front, meaning no one can see inside. After putting on the goggles he puts the headphones over them, luckily for Alex the cars windows are tinted heavily so no one can see how bad this awkward combination looks from the outside.

"Beginning call." The chauffer announces through the headphones. Four lights mounted at various points begin to turn on and power up, the projector like lenses begin to focus the light as they coalesce into a single clear image standing on top of the centre console between the two front seats. The image has a blue tinge and stands about 40 centimetres tall. An older raccoon looks at Alex, standing up straight wearing suit that's not black but closer to a dark maroon or purple, the buttons on his jacket are much lighter, white or perhaps gold. The long pants are the same maroon colour, going all the way down to his ankles to his black leather loafers. In his chest, he wears a deep red cravat that rises all the way to just below his neck. His fur, grey, but a much lighter grey, greyer than Alex or even the shorts Alex is wearing.

"Good morning Alex." He begins in a distinct Italian accent. "My name is Antonio Regazoni, but all my friends call me 'il ladro' or ladro for short. I hope we can be friends."

Ladro, Italian for thief.

"What's the job?" Alex asks.

"Straight to the point I see. It's not a job, but a whole series of heists leading up to the biggest heist in history." Antonio explains.

"Why me? I'm sure there are much better thieves than me, even you're probably better than me." Alex reasons.

"Because, it would make me happy to see the next Cooper in action." Antonio replies.

"Listen, I've had to learn the hard way that my name is worth nothing in this world to others." Alex argues.

"But yet somehow your family name rises to the top every time. I don't see why you can't do the same." Antonio says. "I've gotten old and I can no longer do the heists that I want to do and I can't leave this place otherwise I fear I'll be found by the authorities, so all you'll see of me is in these holographic calls and messages."

"But what do you gain out of this by taking a novice and throwing him into the deep end?" Alex asks, still unsure about why it must be him doing this.

"What I get is the satisfaction, even the pleasure and privilege, of conversing, teaching and watching soon to be the world's best thief alive. And no, I won't get you raiding art galleries straight away, one must crawl before they can walk and walk before they can run and run before they can steal diamonds!" He says with excitement.

"The last heist is stealing diamonds?" Alex asks.

"Just keep it in the back of your head for now, that's far away, and who said it will be the last heist, that's only the last heist I have planned for you. If you want, after it's done, I can find more heists or you can leave and go your own path. Either way, I will feel I've done something honourable in my life." Antonio explains.

"You're placing too much confidence in me." Alex warns.

"Haven't you ever felt the rush to walk up to a roulette table and put it all on black?" Antonio asks rhetorically.

"No." Alex answers puzzlingly.

"Anyway, you're not doing this alone. I've assembled a team for you to work with, if you don't like them then I can find others, but I think they should be the ideal combination." Antonio explains. "They'll be waiting for you at the end destination, which should be in less than 30 seconds. So, when you arrive, go to the 10th floor of the apartment building and enter apartment 10A."

"How will I get in? Do you have a key?" Alex asks.

"If you can't break into my own apartment building then I'll know I need to work on much more with you than I thought." Antonio explains. "I'll meet you upstairs."

The hologram goes away as the lights turn off and the car arrives outside an apartment building in the centre of London.

"I'll be waiting in the underground parking garage, so you won't need your equipment except for your cane." The chauffeur explains. "And take it out of the case, you might need it."

Alex takes off the goggles, headphones, his seatbelt and leans over to unlock the thin case, revealing his prized possession. He slowly takes it out of the case and rests it on his lap before placing the case on the back seat of the car.

"I just need to grab my gloves from by backpack." Alex says as he gets out of the car and goes to the back of the car and hears the boot unlock. He opens the latch for his backpack and search for his pair of tight black gloves with a rubber like layer around the palm to help grip on surfaces. Alex shuts the boot and proceeds to grab his cane. But the car begins to pull away with the side door still open. Alex goes into a sprint and reaches inside with his left hand, pulling out the cane from the bottom of the shaft and closing the door with his right, the chauffer not making any sort of apologetic gesture as he drives around the corner. Standing in the footpath, as people walk by in both directions, Alex looks up at the height of the building. It must be over 20 stories tall, so it shouldn't take long to get up to the apartment.

Alex walks up to the large glass front door and looks at the keypad, above it is a sign carved in metal and coloured black.

'_To dial apartment, press the number then the hash key to select letter.'_

Easy enough, Alex thinks. He presses 1, then 0 then presses the hash key once for apartment 10A. He presses the enter key and hears the apartment intercom dial. He hears the lock beep twice and a light turn to green, unlocking the door.

"Too easy." Alex mutters to himself, small wins are enough for him. He walks inside to the empty lobby, a mixture of exposed concrete and laminated stone floors with a few pieces of modern art and furnishings to add a splash of colour. Alex casually walks towards the lift and cockily swings around the cane and presses the up button with the butt of the cane. He thinks it's impressive as he finds a security camera watching him from the far corner and thinks that Antonio must be watching from these cameras. As the doors swing open, Alex gives a small wave to the camera as he strolls inside and presses the button for the tenth floor. What test could this be, Alex thinks. He realizes what the catch is when the elevator suddenly stops about 5 seconds after it started moving up.

"Very funny." Alex says to the security camera inside the elevator.

"You see, this happened once to me in India. I know what to do." Alex begins to explain to the camera as he proceeds to force open the elevator doors. When he fully opens them up, he sees that he's stuck perfectly between the 4th and 5th floors. The gap above and below the large concrete slab is too small for Alex to crawl through.

"Okay, you got me there." Alex comments to the camera. He spots the roof hatch on the roof of the elevator, exactly where you'd expect to find a roof hatch. He realizes it's the only way out of the elevator carriage and this is the test he has to pull himself through. Alex turn the cane around so the shaft is facing upwards and pushes it against the hatch, it's secured shut. Alex begins thrusting the cane against the hatch to try and bust it open, it takes several repeated blows straight to the lock but it finally gives away as if flings open onto the top of the elevator car with a loud twang as it collides on the exposed steel. The elevator shaft extends into darkness where the top can't be seen from this far down; only the steel cables reach into the abyss above. It's up those cables that Alex must climb to reach the 10th floor. In order to do so, he has to first get on top of the elevator car. He switches the cane into his left hand and jumps up as high as he can, grabbing the top of the elevator with one hand and holding himself up.

While he holds himself up, the raccoon puts the cane into his mouth and reaches up with his other hand. It's held in his mouth next to the hook so as he pulls himself up, he tilts his head 90 degrees so he can fit the can through as well. It's not the most pretty of exits, but then again, aesthetics aren't the main objective. Alex stands up and sizes up the challenge, a 5 and a half story climb up a steel cable. Placing the cane back in his mouth (he thinks he needs a more hygienic way to do this), he takes a two step run up as the cable and jumps up as high as possible, gripping it with both hands and quickly winding his feet around the cable to prevent them from slipping. With a stable position, he begins to climb up the cable quickly, going at just under a metre per second, counting the number of floors he passes. Climbing had always been easy for Alex, from when he started out in the remote forests of Sweden to more challenging climbs like telephone poles, crane booms and skyscrapers under construction.

When he reaches the 10th floor, opposite the elevator doors, he stops and analyses the situation. There is a small ledge, barely 10cm deep just before the elevator doors, whereas Alex is 1 metre away from reaching the doors. With the cane in his hand he could reach it but not force the doors open. There are some motors on the top of the door to open and close them in time with the elevator; perhaps there is a button to open them from the inside. Alex reaches out with the cane to find such a button but it's hard to look when he is trying to hold onto the cable at the same time. After climbing up a bit higher for a better view, he spots a large red button on the left. He reaches out from the cable and presses it with the hook of the cane. The doors open and immediately Alex throws the cane into the landing area before he jumps down as far forwards as he can, performing a forward roll as he lands in the lobby. As he stands up and collects his cane, the doors close again. He didn't think about how long they would stay open for, but he knew that he had to move fast. Looking around for the correct apartment, he finds it on the left of the corridor with the apartment number written on the front.

Alex tries the door but it's locked, he knocks on it as well but there is no answer. The something shiny catches his eye, a paperclip just resting on the ground so coincidentally. He knows this has to be a set up. With a sigh, he bends over and picks up the paperclip, bending it out into a straightish line before working his magic on the lock. Within 10 seconds, he unlocks the door and swings it open to discover who will be his partners in crime.


	3. Old Frenemies

**Chapter 3 – Old Frenemies**

**London, England. 10:27am, 3****rd**** November 2032.**

The door swings open. Inside is a very modern apartment with all of the comforts one would expect of a residence in central London. From the entrance, he can see one dark orange and black striped head sitting on a couch just to the left of this small corridor he walks along. The raccoon reaches the end of the corridor and sees the tiger sitting on the couch, watching the other person, a rat, typing away at a computer with headphones on; both around the same age as him. Alex looks at the shirtless tiger, wearing only a set of jeans on the white leather couch with his huge arms outstretched like he claims the entire sofa. The six pack is easily visible even underneath the extremely loose fitting tank top; which Alex is not immediately sure whether it is light pink or light orange, somewhere in between; along with thick brutish arms that both seem to stand out completely from the rest of his body. Sadly, the muscle seems to stop at the waist where he has legs that are of a similar size to Alex's.

"So you're Alex Cooper." The tiger notes without looking away from the rat. Alex senses some sort of familiarity with him, but he can't quite put a finger on it. "I'm Tyson."

Tyson, it's hits him in an instant. The schoolyard bully he met if only for one day, but it was probably one day too much back then. He was such a show off even in his younger years with the only comparable show of audacity being the amount of detentions given to him my teachers.

"Tyson." Alex says as he remembers details about him, perhaps Tyson doesn't remember anything about him, and why would he? This is the opportunity for a fresh start as older and more mature people.

"Hope this all works out." Alex says hopefully.

"It's not me you need to worry about, it's him." Tyson points out to the rat hunched over the computer. "All he's done is talk about you like you're his idol or something."

"Why is that a problem? We all need to be loved by somebody." Alex says.

"Not like this, it's an obsession, it's done my head in." Tyson explains. "I'll get him to say hello."

Tyson slowly gets up from the couch and swings his right arm around in a windmill once, just to loosen the muscle out. As Alex sees the entire body, he wonders how he can hold himself up with the disproportionately skinny legs compared to the huge upper body. He must be too top heavy, but somehow he walks across to the floor with ease as he gets behind the rat without being heard, the music must be turned up loud. Tyson slowly reaches around both of the ear cups with both hands and removes it quickly from his head. The rat reacts quickly and tries to hold it down but he is way too weak for the buffed out tiger.

"Hey, put them back!" The rat shouts in a partly squeaky voice as if a late puberty is happening at this very moment. His height would suggest that he hasn't quite finished puberty, being much shorter than both Alex and Tyson by at least 15cm and the least athletically built, at least from the way he looks. His green shirt, at least green for now, can change colours to fit in with the surrounding area as well as change the lengths of the sleeves as well as the fit, whether it would be baggy like it is now or skin tight. It is the height of wearable technology right now, he always wants to be on or ahead of the technology curve. So the computer he's using is constantly upgraded when new parts become available that can outperform the current ones inside. The laptop he has can be taken apart and rebuilt easily, he knows that because he designed it.

"He's here." Tyson says. This immediately stops him in his arguing and instead turns around slowly, like Alex's presence is a revered thing to behold. As his face turns around, it lights up like a kid in a candy store. He gets up and replaces the chair out of habit and slowly approaches Alex, hoping that the raccoon remembers him.

"Hello Alex… it's been a while." The rat says nervously. It's all he can say, the occasion seems to have gotten the better of him and nervousness has creeped into his entire body and gotten into his speech. At least the squeakiness has gone.

"You're…" Alex says, trying to remember his name, but then he remembers the rhyme.

"You're Matt, Matt the rat." Alex says as he remembers him from all those years ago.

"I knew you'd remember." Matt replies gleefully.

"All that stuff that happened, that was…" Alex says as he tries to find the appropriate word to describe it. However, no word can encapsulate the experiences he had that day. The disappointment of leaving the forest, the happiness of winning a game of dodgeball, the distrust he felt as his parents didn't tell him what was happening. Then, what was most scarring, the sudden jolt of separation as he tiredly saw his parents get taken away by police as he would be taken away with his sister.

"Anyway, what's been happening here?" Alex asks to both of them, hoping for some insight as to why they have been brought together.

"Some guy called 'Il Ladro', or something like that, told me to come here for some reason and I got paid for doing so." Tyson explains, thinking of the financial benefits of this meeting.

"You didn't think that Antonio 'Il Ladro' Regazoni, former crime boss and thief, wasn't going to ask you to do some sort of criminal activity, money doesn't come for free like that you know." Matt explains.

"I'll take it in my stride." Tyson replies casually, like he seems to do with everything that comes his way.

"I've done my research. He has a history of doing this; in 2029, an unknown gang of thieves broke into a highly secure bank vault in Switzerland, they even managed to get into the vault itself without raising an alarm. But once they had removed the loot, millions in gold bullion, police sprang on them and they all got imprisoned but the gold was never returned." Matt explains. "In 2030, another unknown gang of thieves manages to get their way into a corporate head quarters and steal some company secrets. Guess what, same thing happens. Just as they finish uploading the files, they get sprung by the police. I tell you, he's going to use us to get something before discarding us to the police."

"Diamonds." Alex remarks hushly.

"Is that his endgame? Diamonds?" Matt asks.

"He mentioned diamonds but not directly as a planned heist." Alex says.

"So, we're getting some bling after all of this is finished." Tyson adds.

"I don't know for sure." Alex replies.

"If it's diamonds he wants then I'll bet my 40GHz processor that it's going to be in Antwerp, the diamond trading capital of the world." Matt explains. "Almost all of the biggest heists on the planet happen in Belgium, and most of the time, it's diamonds, gold, jewelry and cash."

"Except not the biggest one of them all." Alex notes.

"You wouldn't happen to have it in your possession would you?" Matt asks sarcastically.

"I don't even know where it is." Alex replies.

"You inherited the worlds biggest criminal fortune and you don't even know where it is?" Matt asks in surprise.

"I have to earn my reputation before I can earn my inheritance." Alex explains. The holographic plate sitting on top of the entertainment cabinet begins to turn on. It's where a TV would sit, television is still popular but holographic pictures are becoming mainstream, it's a flat black rectangle with four projector lenses on each corner that create the image.

"He's trying to communicate." Matt says, shutting down his computer and moving around so he can see the hologram.

"So, how are we all? Getting along well?" Antonio asks, sitting down in a wingback chair. No one replies to the question, no one can give a definitive answer.

"Okay then. So, who wants to hear what your first heist is?" Antonio asks with more enthusiasm than the three of them combined.

"Ok, what is it?" Alex asks, since none of the other two are willing to say anything.

"It's a simple robbery, nothing too difficult to get you started. Thanks to a tip off, a bank account holding the proceeds of a drug ring has been closed and as such, all of the money has to be withdrawn and taken to a safe location. Where you three come in is to intercept the courier carrying the cash before it reaches it's destination. Like I said, simple enough. I'll send through more details in a few minutes." Antonio explains before the hologram pad turns off. When it does, Alex holds his head in his hands.

"Seriously? An armed robbery, easy?" Alex complains to both of them. "Do you know how difficult this will be?"

"I don't know, enlighten me." Tyson says, still with the same nonchalance as before.

"Banks are incredibly hard to get into, there are cameras everywhere, it's impossible to get inside without been recorded down on surveillance footage." Alex rants.

"Which is why we do this outside of the bank." Matt explains calmly. Alex realizes something.

"Did you plan this?" Alex accuses Matt. Matt doesn't respond.

"All I did was close their account, they should have to collect the money within the next 2 days." Matt explains.

"You hacked into a bank?" Alex asks.

"I didn't have to, all I did was inform them of how that money came to be, and they did the rest." Matt explains. Alex takes a deep breath, taking all of this in.

"How much is the score?" Alex asks finally.

"Around 2 million pounds." Matt answers.

"What?" Alex asks in surprise again. If this is supposed to be easy, Alex wonders what's meant to be harder than this.

"Give or take a few hundred thousand." Matt adds.

"I can't believe it!" Alex exclaims.

"Isn't this what you dreamed of, hitting big targets like this?" Matt asks in confusion.

"When I was 8, the world seemed so easy like everything would be laid out to me on a red carpet. Now that I'm 18, I can't quite imagine how I could have been so naïve." Alex explains.

"Just think about over half a million in your pocket." Tyson adds. "And that's after we split it!"

"Hasn't it occurred to you that 'Il Ladro' is probably going to demand a cut, he probably would take more than 90% of it for himself, just to teach us a lesson." Alex warns.

"Well then, we'll screw him over and take it for ourselves." Tyson says.

"Oh, that's a great idea." Alex sarcastically and exasperatingly responds. "Let's bite the hand that feeds us at the first opportunity. I don't think you know the scale of Antwerp's diamond markets, 30 billion dollars a year goes through there just in diamonds, who knows what else is there as well?"

"So, you do want to do this heist?" Matt says, hoping to contradict Alex.

"I do, but it's much bigger than anything I've done before. Much bigger, like many hundreds of times more." Alex says, trying to put it all into perspective.

"Are you scared?" Tyson asks. This puts Alex on the edge.

"No!" Alex shouts.

"Then, what shall we do to start making giant amounts of money?" Tyson asks.

"Reconnaissance." Matt says. "We have to plan this out step by step if we are to do this cleanly. So when Alex has calmed down, he's going to do some scouting for us."

"And what will you be doing?" Alex asks.

"Helping you out from here, directing you and giving you information via these." Matt says as he opens a desk drawer next to him. To Alex, it looks like a pair of matte black wrap around sunglasses, but knowing Matt, it's probably not just that.

"There's a camera mounted in the centre of the frame so I can see what you can see from this computer or indeed other wearing similar devices. Regazoni has been kind enough to bankroll all of the equipment I bought." Matt explains.

"He's probably going to ask us to repay that from the takings." Alex adds.

"All up it's less than ten thousand pounds, a drop in the ocean compared to the full amount." Matt explains. "Now, the lenses are photoconductive which means that it generates it's power from light, the cells are so good that just a street lamp can still charge it. That light powers the interface inside, you can bring up images such as what we can see or put directions, weather, basically anything you need to see whilst in transit, it's a gesture controlled to make it easier. I also have an earpiece for you, it will conform to your ear's shape so it fits and doesn't fall out as well as block out external noise. Finally, and I think this is the best part, tada!"

What Matt pulls out is a small backpack made from synthetic materials, a very basic looking backpack except for the odd looking mechanical attachment on the back. Mounted into the lining of the backpack on a graphene board, are a set of two rings set at a slight angle to the right set one behind each other each with a split in the middle.

"These two rings on the back are designed to carry your cane when you don't need to hold onto it, freeing up your hands instead of putting in your mouth like when you were climbing the elevator cables." Matt explains.

"How did…" Alex says instinctively.

"I stopped the elevator and watched you as you climbed cable effortlessly as planned." Matt explains.

"You didn't have to do that." Alex exclaims.

"If I was in your position, when you got onto the elevator's roof, I would have forced open the 5th floor doors and taken 5 flights of stairs, a much easier journey than what you did." Matt explains.

"Let's get back to the this, cane grabber thing." Alex says.

"Why do you even need this cane?" Tyson asks as he looks at it in Alex's hand. "It seems like it's holding you down."

"Because it's how my family has done it and that's what I'm taught to use." Alex explains.

"You do realize it makes you look like… the grim reaper or something with that. Oh, what's that sword, axe thing death carries?" Tyson asks, trying to remember what it's called.

"Scythe." Matt answers.

"Yes that, that's what it makes you look like." Tyson says. With the black cane in his hand, Tyson has somewhat of a point, but Alex doesn't like it when people think he would be a murderer.

"First of all, killing people is not my style, I'm a thief not a murderer. Therefore I want a zero body count, period, no exceptions." Alex insists.

"I'm just saying you look like death incarnate. Instead of stealing money or jewels, you could steal people's lives." Tyson says.

"Let's get back to this backpack." Alex says, changing the subject quickly to prevent him from lashing out.

"Anyway, the two rings have rubber grips that open like apertures on a camera lens. When you place it inside, it will hold on to it securely until you try and pull it out. It will only release if it detects that something it pulling it out, then it will open up like a pair of butterflies wings so you can swing it out straight away." Matt explains. "Here, try it out."

Matt offers the backpack to Alex and he accepts it. The raccoon puts it on, he is surprised at the lightness of it even with the grabber on the back.

"Oh, I have to turn it on first." Matt says, as he reaches around and presses a button on the back, instantly, the two rings split in half and open up like claws ready to clench.

"So I just put it in there and it will hold it?" Alex asks as he can't see what's happening behind him.

"Precisely." Matt concurs. Alex then reaches behind him and places the cane where he thinks the two rings are. When it's inside it's reach, the two rings come together and the rubber grips come out quickly to stop it from dropping through. Alex can feel the hard grip of the rings on the cane, he can't move it from it's position as he just moves the backpack instead.

"Nice, now how do I get it out?" Alex asks.

"It has a 3 second safety so you can't put it in and take it out quickly, it has to initialize the second program to change to release mode. So, to remove it, just pull and it will release. When you apply enough force, it will let go, but to you it will feel like it's just resting behind you." Matt explains.

Alex reaches behind his back and grabs the cane just below the hook and pulls it, it lets go as soon as he has gripped it. It didn't feel like it was holding it at all, rather like it was waiting to be used without any hindrance. Alex is surprised there was no resistance from the grabber.

"The material is waterproof and hydrophobic so anything inside won't get wet even if it's submerged underwater.

"That's actually pretty useful." Alex notes as he takes off the backpack, not about the water tightness, but the cane grabber.

"Pretty neat." Matt concurs. "But you'll need to put the backpack back on if we plan on doing any recon now."

"Okay then." Alex replies.

"You gonna give me something?" Tyson asks.

"Nothing too big until later, if at all." Matt answers. "But take the glasses, everyone gets one."

Matt throws it over Frisbee style into the lap of the tiger and he puts it on and instantly marvels at it's functionality.

"So when do we stop talking and start reconing?" Alex asks.

"Whenever you're willing to walk out of the door." Matt replies as he leans over to open up a program on his computer, the program streams the camera feed from Alex's set of glasses. So he can see the back of himself as Alex peers over to look at the computer.

"There should be a video feed incoming, it will appear in the top left hand corner." Matt says. Alex does indeed see Matt's face from the camera in the computer inside his glasses, this picture doesn't take up much of the space and appears as if it's further away than it actually is like it's a metre away instead of a few centimetres.

"Okay, uploading directions." Matt exclaims. In Alex's view, a map appears in the top right hand corner with the directions to the bank. But Alex doesn't use street directions; he won't be taking to the streets.

"How far away is it?" Alex asks.

"Less than a kilometre." Matt says, Alex puts on the backpack and inserts the earpiece, eager to prove his speed.

"I'll be there in under 10 minutes." Alex challenges to Matt, more to himself though.

"Want to bet?" Matt asks.

"How much?" Alex counters. With a small amount of thinking, Matt names his price.

"Fifty percent of whatever my share is will be yours, and vice versa if you lose." Matt bets.

"Deal." Alex concurs as he grabs his cane, ready to leave.

"Your time starts now." Matt says, hitting a key on the computer, bringing up a countdown timer on Alex's set of glasses and it's already beginning to tick down.


	4. Race Against the Clock

**Chapter 4 – Race Against the Clock**

**Central London, England. 10:43am, 3****rd**** November 2032.**

_**9:57 remaining**_

Alex swings open the door and shuts it, without any regard for whether it closed or not, and races towards the stairs as he has no time for waiting for the lift. He leaps down each set of stairs but it takes a little too long to recover from the landing. Then he sees the steel handrails either side of the stairs, shooting down the rails are those little blue shimmers that keep on popping up whenever there's something useful to climb on, perhaps this is the time to test out the rail slide technique. So he jumps onto the outside handrail and begins to slide, using the cane to balance. However, the rail ends at each flat landing. So, in an equally impressive manner, Alex looks at the opposite handrail and bends his knees and performs a back flip. Watching the live feed is Matt, and he can't believe that he even tried that, let alone landed it. It goes on like this down to the bottom floor, gathering speed until Alex just wall runs across to the next rail instead of back flipping. When Alex reaches the ground floor, he can't help think but realize how cool they must think it looked as he puts the cane inside the grabber.

"That's completely outrageous what you did there." Matt comments.

"I'm just getting started." Alex says as he runs for the back exit.

"Hey Tyson!" Matt shouts, Tyson comes out of the room a little bit out of sorts with the glasses in his hand.

"What?" Tyson says, like he was being interrupted.

"Check out what Alex did." Matt says, rewinding the footage back to the start. Tyson can only watch in awe at Alex's athleticism.

"Damn." Tyson exclaims. "Where is he now?"

Matt resumes the live feed to discover he has already climbed up to the roof of another building across the street. Tyson goes straight to the window and can see Alex running across the rooftop and jumping across a laneway gap between buildings. Matt starts to have second thoughts about the success of his bet.

"I bet he'd take more than 10 minutes to reach the bank. I'm going to lose." Matt admits.

"Not as smart as you think." Tyson comments.

"Hey, I knew he'd be quick, but not back flipping off handrails quick." Matt counters.

"Let's just continue watching and think about how we'll never be able to do what he's doing." Tyson admits in awe as he crowds around the computer.

_**6:24 remaining.**_

Already half of the way there, Alex can't see just how he could lose this bet without a major obstacle. He continues his path across the rooftops, running at speed towards an older building with a ledge with about a 5 metre gap in between. He leaps, taking a boost from the ledge of the previous building, and lands on the tiny sandstone ledge. Alex then takes out his cane and shuffles along the side of the 4th floor of a building. He doesn't look at the people inside who may or may not have seen him, but instead he's focused on the turn and what may be around the other side. To his luck, there is another ledge that he can jump cross to. So without hesitation, he does so. With only one floor until he reaches the roof again, Alex look's up at the ledge from the next floor and places his cane back in the grabber, he'll need tow hands for this jump. Alex jumps outwards with his arms outstretched, and reaches the ledge and pulls himself up quickly then onto the roof. When he reaches the top, he sees all of the attached buildings down this entire street which he has to follow almost to the viewpoint for the bank. Alex glances at the timer and thinks he has it in the bag.

_**3:05 remaining**_

"I don't know whether I should be congratulating you or cursing myself for placing that bet." Matt comments in a self-pitying mood over the wire.

"Cheer up, I'm not going to rub it in. Besides, I'll let you keep your share as a reminder to not bet against me when it comes to doing these sorts of things." Alex says as he jogs casually down along the rooftops, occasionally leaping down a story as the height of the buildings descend to only three stories.

"I'm very grateful." Matt thanks Alex.

"It's the least I can do." Alex says as he nears the end of the row of buildings. "Now, where exactly to you want me?"

On Alex's glasses, a large red marker pops up over the exact rooftop he has to stand on. It's the building across the street at the end of the row of buildings Alex seamlessly crosses with effortless ease.

"Across the street in 3 minutes, too easy." Alex remarks.

"It's a one way street 4 lanes wide plus footpaths, you can't jump across that. Besides, you've basically won anyway so just come down cross the street then climb up to the top." Matt says. To Alex, it's like a challenge that he can't say no to because he knows he could do it at the right moment. Alex can see the right side of the front entrance of the bank from where he is, some people go in and out, but nothing untoward can be seen from his position. The raccoon stands up and looks at the passing traffic at the vehicles driving past along with the torrent of cyclists in this city, spurred on by the extremely high price of the congestion charge tax. But what Alex is looking for is one of the most iconic vehicles in London, the double decker bus. There is a lamppost about 2 metres away from the building at about the same height, the top of it shimmering away in anticipation of what he will do.

"If you fail at this, it's not going to be pretty." Matt warns.

"I'm not going to, I'll avoid the problem of 'failing' in the first place." Alex argues as he looks out over the streets for a path. There's a bus coming from the right in the closest lane to the building, he spots a garbage truck coming in the 3rd lane away from Alex just behind the bus. All of his thoughts tell him that the path will align, at least that's what the blue shimmers tell him. The little blue sparkles emanate from the tops of both vehicles as well at the bright shimmer from the lamppost. He waits at the edge of the building, he has to drop down one story from the lamppost so a run up is not ideal. When he sees the two vehicle moving closer to the intersection point, he leaps onto the lamppost with one step and leaps down with arms out to balance his fall onto the bus. He lands on the roof with a quick forward roll before instantly leaping off the other side to reach the garbage truck. He stretches out his arms to grab the side of the garbage compacter before climbing up swiftly. Standing in a crouched position on the top, he tries to find a way across. Luckily the blue shimmers find a way, a lamppost on the other side has the shimmer shooting up it's metal upright. So Alex instinctively moves to the right side of the truck and jumps for the pole. He grabs it with both hands and climbs it as fast as possible before reaching the top and jumping over the footpath to reach the opposite roof.

Alex takes a few steps into the middle of the roof so he isn't in view of the general public as he waits for the expected congratulations/freaking out.

"How was that?" Alex asks cockily, pleased with his efforts.

"Completely stupid and utterly ridiculous." Matt comments.

"But he did it." Tyson adds.

"Oh like you could do that." Matt says sarcastically.

"Yeah." Tyson says enthusiastically, too bad for him that same enthusiasm wears away in seconds after he thinks briefly at all of the combined stunts Alex just pulled.

"Maybe not, perhaps the lamppost jump but… okay, not even that." Tyson self corrects.

"So, what do you want me to watch?" Alex asks as he steps towards the designated viewing point.

"The entrance, you're a bit early so you'll have to wait a little bit. I didn't expect you to be this fast." Matt explains.

"Just put a picture of what or who I need to look for." Alex commands. In a few seconds, a picture comes up in the top right hand corner, opposite Matt's vision. It's looks like someone in a hoody with long pants on, no any identifiable features are visible like this person has wrapped themselves in clothing to not be seen.

"This person doesn't have any identification I can find, from the picture, he or she hides him or herself from view by wearing large amounts of clothing to prevent security cameras from photographing him/her." Matt explains.

"Wait, you don't even know this person's gender?" Alex asks, the picture makes Alex think the target is male, the dark blue colour of the hoody and the fit of the jeans make him think so, but the baggy hoody could be hiding other things underneath.

"I know nothing, I've searched government databases, birth certificates. Nothing." Matt answers.

"Then how did you get this photo? It looks like it's from on top of a rooftop." Alex asks whilst thinking of who could get onto a rooftop and take covert photos.

"Our mutual friend 'Il Ladro' just sent this to me." Matt answers. "He said that he had intelligence that it would be this person getting the money from the bank tommorow."

"Won't he have to take off his… or her hoody and show his or herself inside?" Alex asks.

"It's certainly possible but considering the circumstances I'm not sure that they will need to follow the rules." Matt explains.

Not that they are anyway.

Suddenly, loud music begins playing through the earpiece, really loud music. It startles Alex and causes his ears to ring painfully. Alex desperately tries to fish out the earpiece and get rid of it so he can get rid of the violent noise. He hopes it hasn't upset him, because there is an unusual side effect that has flared up because of it.

After getting the earpiece out his ear, Alex quickly reaches into his pocket and gets out a well-worn thin mirror about the size of a playing card. He holds it out so he can try and look at himself. _Try_.

It started to become apparent just before they left from the apartment in Paris around 10 years ago that he realized something was different. A game of hide and seek, he was especially good at hiding when it's impossible to seek.

In the Thievius Raccoonus he had read about the shadow power first noted by the founding writer of the fabled book, Slytunkahmen. It was written that he could disappear whenever he wanted to avoid being seen by guards and prying eyes. He wondered if this was what he had, he wished he could ask his father about it, but then he went to prison and had never heard from him since. No contact, no possibility of visits, as if he had simply disappeared off the face of the earth. He wonders from time to time whether he could do what's happening to him right now, except in a more controlled way.

The reflection from the mirror reveals only the roof of the building behind Alex instead of where his torso should be. All he focuses on right now is calming down, crouching low on the roof with his eyes closed and thinking of something… calming.

The endless trees in the forest, climbing them and seeing the sight from the top. The lake and the eternal stillness it seemed to always have when he gazed out at it and marveling at it's reflectivity…

Alex checks himself again quickly with the mirror whilst he feels his heart rate. A sigh of relief as Alex puts the mirror back in the pocket, ready to be used in case this happens again, which there is no doubt in his mind that it will. He takes off the backpack and places next to him before he just sits down on the roof with his back hunched over his bent legs with his head hung low about how would he explain this embarrassing characteristic he has. Alex puts the earpiece close to his ear, just to check that the loud music isn't playing, and puts it his ear as it was before.

"Can you not play loud music? It hurts my ears." Alex asks. "I don't mind if you do but it has to be at a much lower volume."

"What was that all about?" Matt asks.

"What?" Alex asks to sound just as confused as Matt is. "I was just sitting down until you'd tell me to do something."

"Are you sure?" Matt asks sceptically.

"Yes." Alex answer adamantly.

"Then." Matt concludes, but with some uneasiness about Alex's explanation. "I need you to take a look at the way people walk around the bank, where people come from to get into the bank and where they go to get out. Watch the patterns of the people walking, most likely the target will use the crowds to stay in anonymity so it's important you know where they are usually come from when the drop happens."

"I'll just enjoy this usual overcast day in London then." Alex comments sardonically as he peers slightly over the edge so he can see the footpath in front of the bank. It's situated right on one corner of a 5 way intersection but has one quarter of the space due to the road layout. He can see a full front on view of the banks front doors, inside he can see a few legs of people in suits doing various banking transactions as one would expect when they line up to see the bank teller. Mobile banking and ATM's had basically killed off most of the service a traditional bank teller could do, but some people still crave that face to face interaction; to know that it's not just a computer in charge of their money but, in the end, of course it is.

Alex sits on the rooftop for 15 minutes, looking at people walking, some quickly and some who try and run through the maze of people in order to get at their destination that much earlier. He thinks he knows what to expect and where this runner is going to come from.

"I think I know how he's going to do this." Alex comments.

"Great, I'm sending you a package by drone." Matt announces. Alex turns his head to see the small quadcopter with a large claw like grip on a box hanging below. Alex watches it place the box on the ground before flying away.

"What should I be expecting?" Alex asks as he moves in to open the box.

"Cameras to place around the bank for surveillance." Matt says. Alex opens the box up and sees the 8 smaller boxes arranged neatly in a cube inside the one large container. Alex picks up a box but it's much lighter than he expected, it only feels like he got the boxes instead of the contents that are meant to be inside.

"They're empty." Alex says as he shakes one of them to check that he hasn't missed anything.

"It's not possible, I sent it personally from this building a few minutes ago." Matt explains.

"Something's inside." Alex says as he opens the box up to find a note inside.

'_Do not attempt your heist or pay the price. For now, run.'_

It's the only part of the lengthy letter he reads before he hears and sees a small drone similar to the one he saw deliver the 'cameras' before, except with flashing police lights and police markings, heading straight towards him with a camera strapped to the bottom to film him.

"Police drone! Get out of there now!" Matt shouts and Alex obliges as he takes off down the length of the building with the drone monitoring his every movement. The raccoon leaps over a laneway and onto the next building, checking over his shoulder for the drone's position. He has to find a hiding spot, a place where the drone can't follow him. Nothing seems to stand out for him and with this building surrounded by main roads, it's impossible to bridge the gap. So Alex turns around and head back towards the laneway with the drone having to tilt violently to keep up, Alex looks down at the laneway for a way to get down but the next thing he realizes is the drone had been obliterated behind him. The drone is broken up into several chunks as the fans do most of the chopping of debris as the engines struggle to correct itself when it's main body has broken apart. Pieces of the body fly off to Alex's right, some land on the roof and some manage to fall into the laneway.

Alex sees all of this destruction and doesn't know what to make of it, he didn't think that Matt or Tyson had a rifle kept in the apartment let alone be accurate from almost a kilometre away.

"Did you see that?" Alex asks in disbelief.

"It just blew up!" Tyson exclaims.

"No, It got shot down." Matt concludes.

"By who?" Alex asks.

"I don't know, it wasn't us." Matt answers.

"Thanks for that." Alex replies sarcastically as he looks in the direction of where he thinks the silent shot came from. He tries to look for someone or something on a roof but sees no one.

"I think the shooter has gone." Alex says but not confidently. He doesn't understand what has just happened fully yet, who was that who just saved him?

"Anyway, you better get back before they send another drone." Matt instructs and Alex obliges. But before he does he gets out the note and reads it fully.

'_Do not attempt your heist or pay the price. For now run._

_And now that's done we can have some fun._

_Remember the old saying_

_What's yours is mine?_

_That summarized our lives_

_On one single line?_

_It's time to recognize_

_Your own morals paralyse,_

_So you went to see the world_

_With your own eyes._

_But while you fled,_

_I got ahead._

_So please, this heist don't try,_

_I don't want you to die._

_I'm better than you, you see._

_My gang is bigger than you three._

_So please don't interfere with me._

_Sincerely, JLP._


	5. Internet Famous

**Chapter 5 – Internet Famous**

**Central London, England. 8:42pm, 3****rd**** November 2032.**

It's the first time they've seen it, even though it's existence has lasted for less than half a day so far. They had wound down for the night, ordering in some food and had begun to relax for the night, which meant for Matt that it was in front of his computer. He was browsing the internet, looking for something needlessly funny to watch, however his attention was swiftly drawn to a short video shorter than 30 seconds titled 'Epic Parkour in London.' Usually this wouldn't attract his attention but the picture in the thumbnail certainly raised a lot of alarm bells. Looking closely at the video with his headphones on, he watched as a tourist filming his family was suddenly distracted when his daughter pointed upwards at something, or someone. The camera swiftly pans up and then down to street level to watch as a grey furred raccoon wearing a blue shirt and light grey pants jumps from a moving double decker bus to a moving garbage truck before leaping onto a lamppost and climbing up before disappearing out of sight.

"Alex." Matt says, taking off his headphones.

"Yeah." Alex responds whilst watching a football match with Tyson. 10 years ago they probably didn't want to be in the same room together.

"We have a problem. A huge problem." Matt announces over the sound of the TV.

"How bad?" Alex asks concernedly as he puts the TV onto mute.

"You're…" Matt begins, struggling to say the precise correct words.

"Gonna do good?" Tyson guesses.

"Famous." Matt completes nervously.

"But I take it that's not a good thing." Alex answers, mirroring Matt's concern.

"You're not just famous, you're internet famous." Matt says before moving away from his computer to show them what he means.

"Alright, 5 million views!" Tyson congratulates to Alex, even thinking about putting a hand up for a high five. But he quickly realizes from the looks on both of their faces that this is not a time to celebrate.

"Can't you take it down or something?" Alex asks.

"With 5 million people having already seen it? Chances are some would have got a copy for themselves and besides, it would be impossible to truly erase it from the Internet after this much exposure." Matt explains as he scrolls down to look at some of the comments, the highest voted one being 'Someone find him and get back the Mona Lisa'.

"You didn't steal the Mona Lisa did you?" Matt asks, just to be 100% sure.

"Nah, that's something my dad did." Alex casually answers.

"Hold on, they think that it's your dad." Matt realizes.

"Yeah but he's in prison." Alex answers. Matt instantly goes onto a news website to check to see what the news have been reporting. A headline reads 'Police quash video depicting escaped thief' just below the main deadline of America's looming debt ceiling deadline.

"Obviously law enforcement doesn't have the same view as the crowd." Matt notes as he opens up the full article, which even contains a video of the press conference to dispel rumours of a breakout.

"…The video in question does not depict the notorious thief Sly Cooper, he is currently locked up in prison and has been for the last 10 years, serving multiple life sentences for his crimes." The police inspector answers.

"If not, then who is it?" A journalist asks.

"The video doesn't contain any material that we would launch an investigation into. The purpose is of this press conference is to reassure the public that one of the worlds most dangerous criminals is safely behind bars." The inspector answers.

"Is it true that…" another journalist asks but stops as she sees someone, not in police uniform, come from the side and whisper something in the inspector's ear.

"I'm sorry, but this press conference is over." The inspector says before he gets up and walks away from the press as some journalists try to ask questions about what was whispered in his ear. As he walks into the secure rooms away from the press, he is met by a single Interpol agent who stands opposite him, holding only a piece of paper in one hand and a pen in the other.

**5:07pm**

"Sign this." She commands.

"What for?" He asks to the young Fennec fox standing opposite. Despite her being significantly skinnier and shorter than the beefy officer and looking like she belongs in a school rather than in law enforcement, she seems to be the more determined and confident of the two.

"Confidentiality. Interpol will take over this case and you won't mention anything about this to anyone from now on." She explains as she stares with her intent blue eyes into his, offering up the pen and paper at the same time. Despite the major reduction in the use of paper recently in favour of electronic tablets, a paper and pen seems to have more permanence; making it better for important documents that need to be signed.

"Don't know why you want it so much? That's not Sly Cooper." The officer exclaims whilst he reluctantly signs along the line.

"Now, you will never know." She says as she takes the freshly signed paper away from him and walks away down the corridor towards the exit.

"Keep the pen." She adds from down the other end of the hall before disappearing from his bemused sight.

Her name is Charlotte Slade, Junior Inspector Charlotte Slade. She's 17 years old, and part of a program that takes children who perhaps would have ended up on the other side of the law and transforms them into working officers of the law. Most of them end up working in the police force, some manage to even get slotted straight into higher roles due to their ability and the very few, like Charlotte, get cherry-picked by Interpol to become agents. It helped her case immensely that her past is awash in highly classified documents, meaning she already has most of the required skills and even more specialized skills at hand. But she has to complete this 3-month transition program, which she is doing at the moment and also finishes on her 18th birthday, in order to get qualified and get the junior part of her title taken away. In short, Interpol hadn't seen this sort of raw talent and skill since a certain former inspector now rotting away in an Austrian jail. Most of her elder colleagues, and all of them are older, can't even stand toe to toe with her determination. Almost every situation ended up with her getting her way she has done right now.

But the one thing she didn't like though about this new job compared to her previous occupation is the uniform. Well, not a uniform per se, but the buttoned up light blue shirt and black long pants will always be uncomfortable to her. They had insisted that she wore high heels in order to increase her right to above 150cm, but she had swiftly replaced them with the immensely more comfortable black flat soled shoes that made her way more mobile than in heels, in heels she could hardly without nearly rolling her ankles with every step. Stepping out into the not so fresh city air, she gets into a waiting car driven by her handler, a more experienced agent but he is more like the one being handled in this arrangement. She walks around the car to get into the car with the form in her hand.

"There we go, signed." She remarks as if it was meaningless. Paperwork is, was and will always be a subject of woe for her this new part of her life.

"Good, so now we are going to see someone who knows more about the person in the video." He explains as she puts his seatbelt on. "He's a private investigator and a former employee of Interpol, so don't disrespect him. He may be the only living person who has had any contact with him and is willing to talk about it."

"Just go." She commands.

"You're not going to boss me around again." He says on the defensive.

"Go or I'll drive." She warns.

"Okay, okay. Calm down." He says, reaching quickly for the ignition button to silently turn on the car. He pulls away and navigates the way to the predetermined meeting destination, the international train terminal St Pancras. Their contact had come from France from work and didn't want to waste time with unnecessary travel when he could turn around and go straight back after he had finished. Charlotte goes ahead into the main waiting area surrounded by boutique shops and small take away cafes under the watchful eye of her handler. The only instruction she was given was to sit down on one of the many plush grey benches around the terminal and that he would find her once she was done. She sits on a bench with as few people on it as possible, waiting and watching for the contact. She scans her surroundings constantly for any signs of someone she would suspect to be a private investigator.

"Miss Slade." He says, sitting right next to Charlotte without her noticing. It takes her completely by surprise.

"You're the contact?" She asks the weasel in the trench coat and holding a large coffee along with a leather briefcase.

"Don't ask someone if they are a contact, it makes them jittery and scared." He explains confidently.

"Okay." She concurs, finally someone who she can respect! The contact reaches into the briefcase and hands her an A4 sized letter, which is packed with what she thinks is a thick piece of paper.

"For you." He comments. "Don't give it to him, I doubt he can do any better with it." He says as he points her handler out from the crowd easily.

"Thanks." She says, confused at how well he knows who she is without ever meeting her.

"If you're thinking how I know everything about you, it's my job to know. Much better than being at Interpol and much better paid as well, I can afford the things you can see right here." He explains.

"Anything else I need to know." She asks.

"Just that I met him when he was 8 years old, now he will be 18 and a bit different to the kid I saw 10 years ago." He explains. "Also, another thing you have to know is… that this will be no walkover."

"Please, everyone says that to me about every case." Charlotte dismisses.

"Not this one." The weasel warns before getting up to catch the train back to Paris to continue working as a private investigator, the best decision he has made in his life.


	6. Ghost

**Chapter 6 – Ghost**

**Central London, England. 11:32pm, 3****rd**** November 2032.**

The other two had long gone to sleep, Alex meanwhile could not escape into that realm so easily. All he can do is lie on the couch and look at the little poem/warning he was given. He didn't know who this mysterious JLP was; maybe it was added just to complete the rhyming scheme. Whoever JLP was, they knew about his travels and his current occupation, which makes Alex suspicious.

He gets up off the couch and looks around the apartment casually and then focuses on certain dark spots and corners that hide from the artificial lights that light up the room in a warm dark yellowy glow. He feels along lampshades with the tips of his fingers, feeling for the slightest imperfection that would indicate a hidden bug. He then searches along the entertainment unit and anywhere else he could think a bug could hide. He had to be sure that there wasn't an internal breach, but if there wasn't, he doesn't know how else they could get that information about their heist before he left the building.

Feeling more nervous with every second a source of infiltration isn't found, Alex ventures quietly, naturally, into Matt's small bedroom. Looking over at the tiny distance between him and the side of the bed, sneaking in here would be a cake-walk. Alex takes one confident and quiet step into the carpeted room, zero noise emanates from the solid floor beneath and yet somehow Matt wakes up startled.

"Stay back!" Matt says more out of fear than confidence as he fumbles for something in the drawer. Alex approaches him quickly, fearing he's grabbing for a weapon he can use against the shadow. Matt reaches for the side lamp and turns it on, expecting to see someone in front of him about to do some evil act. Matt even had one hand on the top drawer of a side table that contained an illegal Taser gun inside.

"Stop!" Alex pleas, standing just to the side of the foot of the bed. Matt halts his pursuit of self-defence after hearing Alex, but the voice sounded much closer than he anticipated. He thinks that he must still be outside and that somehow the trespasser has evaded his watch. Maybe the silent alarm wasn't working properly, is his next thought, which he quickly disregarded as his equipment is never faulty. The only problem is then, where is the assailant?

"Come out now or be shocked." Matt warns loudly so that anyone outside or inside the room would easily hear. Reacting the only way he could think of, he moves straight to the drawer to take the gun out of Matt's hand. Matt feels a rush of air blow past him but there was no perceivable draft that he felt in staying here before. However, a draft isn't his primary concern, his last line of defence has just vanished into thin air after it was snatched from him by an invisible hand. Matt is overridden by dread and horror from the fear of a supernatural being having entered his space, a supernatural being! Such is the irony.

"There's no such thing as ghosts. There's no such thing as ghosts." He quickly chants to himself as he hides underneath the sheets like a little kid.

"I'm not a ghost." Alex says, as he stands right next to the side of the bed at the cowering rat.

"Alex! Kill it!" Matt shouts in complete fear.

"Just stop it, there's no ghost, please calm down." Alex says but the futility is ridden in his voice as Matt continues to hide under the blanket. He had realized what he had done when Matt didn't see him, he didn't need the mirror to check. After several more seconds, the shallow and brisk breathing slows down back to normal as Matt brings up the considerable courage to peak his head out and finds the reassuring figure of Alex standing beside him.

"Oh, Alex. Um, I was having… a nightmare." Matt says, trying to mask all of his fear and replace it with his more familiar calm self.

"I wish I could say yes." Alex says with inevitability in his voice.

"You mean… this apartment is haunted?" Matt asks, returning to his fear filled state.

"No, please calm down." Alex pleas once again. Matt tries his very hardest to do so and buries that fear deep enough so he can stay calm at least until he is in private.

"Okay." Matt says to himself. Alex just stands opposite him, trying to figure out how to say this without blatantly violating every scientific principle the rat knows. They both stay quiet, Matt looking intently at the raccoon who intern is looking at himself for an answer.

"You know sometimes when you look in a mirror…" Alex begins, but quickly discards that planned analogy

"You know when…" Alex begins again, but there's no appropriate way to say it.

"The ghost; that was me." Alex announces, trying to get it off his chest.

"I appreciate your help but like I said, it was a nightmare." Matt answers; the second time he's said it, he almost believes it was actually a nightmare.

"I know this will sound crazy and, please hear me out on this…" Alex says. Matt rides on every word.

"But I think someone is spying on us." Alex says, coming back to the first reason why he went into Matt's room in the first place, and also chickening out at the same time.

"I checked the apartment when I got here, and I checked it again before you got here. There are no bugs in this apartment." Matt says adamantly.

"I don't know, maybe it's your computer." Alex says.

"No," Matt says as he gets out of bed, wearing an old pair of shorts and t-shirt, ready to inspect Alex's problem. "More likely it would be your phone."

"My phone?" Alex asks.

"Are you sure that we are being watched?" Matt asks, just to be sure.

"I got this." Alex says, fishing out the small note he received and gives it to Matt to read. "Whoever this person is, they know about me."

"I can run a search for who JLP is while I check for viruses, probably someone's initials or and organisations initials." Matt says as he takes the note with him towards his computer that is still stationed near the hologram generator. Alex follows closely behind as he takes out his phone, ready to be examined with more computer knowledge than he has.

"Pass your phone." Matt instructs as he opens up his computer. Alex does as he is told and Matt connects it wirelessly to the computer before running an anti virus program for both the computer and the phone.

"Now I'll search for any JLP's" Matt announces as he pulls up the easy to hack government database of names and birth certificates. It takes less than 1 second to analyse over 80 million names for those initials.

"Nothing, I'll search for company names next, too bad they deleted all of black market databases." Matt comments.

"But, didn't you say, nothing can be deleted from the Internet?" Alex asks as he sits down on the couch.

"I did say that." Matt says.

"But." Alex says, hoping there is an exception.

"There is no but, they're gone. No one keeps backups of darknet sites, that basically incriminates themself in running it."

"So we're just going to go through this heist, not knowing who will be there to stop us?" Alex asks.

"We are going through the heist, but a little differently. I'll make sure we also have one eye on the take and one eye on someone watching us." Matt explains. "This anti virus will take all night to do a full and thorough search, so we should get some sleep."

"Just one thing." Alex says as he gets up. "Don't surprise me like that again, a silent alarm?"

"I can't sleep without it, otherwise I just worry that someone's going to break in or worse." Matt explains.

They both tiredly trudge off to sleep, Matt back to his bedroom and Alex back on the couch as there are only two bedrooms that have both been claimed. He has slept on worse in his travels, compared to some places, this is like paradise. Slowly the soft comfort of the cushions begins to work it's magic and put Alex to sleep amongst the whirring of fans that work tirelessly to cool the computer down. He hopes there will be no more surprises like that; the side effect isn't something he wants to flare up unnecessarily. However, he doesn't wish that he never had it; that would be right at the bottom of the list of things he wanted to happen. In fact, it becomes a tremendously helpful self-defence mechanism when required, which it has been of course.

**A/N: The next chapter is a bit more graphic than usual.**


	7. The Lock that Mocks

**A/N: This Chapter is a bit more graphic than usual**

**Chapter 7 – The Lock that Mocks**

**Jakarta, Indonesia. 1:43am, 24****th**** August 2031.**

Much is said about the capabilities of trickle down economics, however, none of it's effects have seemed to have spread to this part of town. If there were one thing that was truly ever present, it would be the smell. The smell of garbage, strewn everywhere in open and unsecure tips, floating on top of the river, resting in open cesspools where people have tried to cram as much trash as they can before attempting to cover it. It doesn't work as they fill up faster than they can be made. Even the smell of his own sweat is more of a comfort to Alex as it drips slowly down his face in the 95% humidity. His shirt is just soaked in sweat, his fingers rest in pools of sweat inside his gloves that make it difficult to get a firm grip on his cane. He is careful with every step not to go into any puddle of water or any rotten garbage, as well as keeping both his tail and his cane off the ground.

After walking through some of the more disparate parts of town, he arrives in a suburb that has definitely seen some economic benefits. However, with all of the fronts lit up, it's easy to see that it's not trickle down economics that have come here, but more like raging torrent economics. These houses are 3 stories tall at least, with manicured lawns, high fences and security measures a plenty. Security cameras are visible even around the high walls and the huge gates that protect these bastions of obscene wealth.

Alex's job for tonight; break inside a specific house, crack the safe, clean it out. His client is actually lives inside said house and ventured into the more forbidden parts of town to ask for help to seek revenge; Revenge over something extremely petty in Alex's mind, being grounded.

He was sitting over a bowl of cooked rice, trying to eat it with chop sticks when she just came from no where at the door of his tiny room.

"Alex Cooper?" She asks, the girl couldn't be much older than 13, if at all.

"Yeah." Alex responds casually, not looking up as he concentrates on balancing the sticky grains of rice on top of the two thin strands of wood called chopsticks

"I need help." She pleas. When Alex drops his rice back into his bowl in frustration, Alex looks up to see the short leopard standing at his door. She was too well groomed and dressed to have come from the slums, so Alex took some interest.

"With what?" Alex asks, hoping it would be just a tiny thing like reaching under a couch for a toy, but then again she had asked for him by name. And how did she even get his name anyway?

"Stealing." She replies. It first he didn't really think she had wanted to ask him that, but he had to entertain that prospect so he didn't scare her as he vanished.

"Some advice." Alex begins, but slowly and kindly in order not to alienate the little girl. "Stealing won't solve your problems."

"Please." She begs. "They have a safe, take it from them."

"And why should I, do this for you?" Alex asks, more as just a chance for her to explain herself before he tells her to leave.

"Because my parents grounded me again for 2 weeks, just because I left my house to see a friend." She says.

"You have to talk to your parents about this, I'm that last person you want to talk to." Alex reaffirms. "It's late, you should be in bed sleeping."

"You sound like my parents." She replies.

"Don't you imagine what your parents would be feeling if they found you had left, they would be worried sick?" Alex wonders.

"They don't notice. I once was out for the whole afternoon and they didn't even notice. Whereas, I saw my dad grab his wallet, and he stood there and felt it. I think he knew someone must have taken something. So… he runs upstairs and I… I didn't see it but… I could hear it. He was beating my mother, I didn't scream for help because I was afraid… afraid, that he'd do the same to me." She explains, it visibly troubles her and Alex can both hear and see it as she struggles to come to terms with it. However, the grounding seems only to be the tip of the iceberg for her vile father. But it's the saddened and desperate look on her face that convinces Alex to do it.

"Okay." Alex answers reluctantly.

"Yes!" She exclaims to herself quietly, suddenly becoming much more pleased as her story perfectly manipulated him into accepting. "I can show you where it is, number 14."

"I'm not going unless you promise me some things." Alex says, trying to get the upper hand over the girl.

"Anything." She replies.

"Good. Firstly, I don't exist, you never met me and you never asked me to do anything. Secondly, you have to get back in your bedroom before I get there and act as if I'm not there. Thirdly, if it goes wrong, I'm going to blame you for it. You should really deal with your parents." Alex asserts.

"I know and I promise." She answers, eager to get her revenge.

"Now go to sleep." Alex commands as he gets up wearily, not because of being tired, but because of the humidity. She runs off away from the room and presumably followed his instructions, which he hopes has happened as he searches for the correct house. The stainless steel numbers of a one then a four next to each other points the raccoon in the right direction. Standing outside the 4 story building, he sees only the top two stories due to the height of the walls he has to scale. But then sees a new path via the power poles nearby. Having to put the cane in his mouth is a disgusting thing given the areas he's had to walk through as he climbs up the wooden pole that gives him a much better view of the inside, a perfectly green lawn in the front before the building itself. Luckily, he doesn't need to touch the ground as there is a cable that runs from the pole to a point in the wall, presumably to run cable TV Alex thinks. It doesn't matter what the purpose is though, all that matters is that it's a way in.

Alex walks the proverbial tightrope in the night, avoiding the security cameras pointed at the inside of the wall and the bright lights that illuminate the front lawn to make it easy for people to be spotted. There is a third floor balcony to the right of the cable which Alex reaches up to in order to climb onto more solid ground. All the blinds are down so he can't see inside, but there is no lock on this door perhaps because the owners never thought they would need to lock a supposedly inaccessible door. All the exterior doors on the top two floors must be like that, Alex thinks as he slowly makes his way through this room which looks like a living area with leather couches and a huge TV in front of him and a staircase to the left. But it's not the furnishings that takes his attention, but the coolness of the air conditioning, not just because of the cool temperature but the low humidity. It's where he goes to first, as they must be sleeping on the most secure top floor.

Alex makes his way up the smooth concrete staircase and immediately sees the bed that the two parents are sleeping in together, a bed larger than king size with a wooden partition wall acting as a headboard. Other than those features, from the top of the staircase, there are no other large features, nothing where a safe could be hidden he thinks apart from the cupboards off to the left of the staircase in this ultra modernistic and minimalist bedroom. Alex sneaks into the bedroom and looks at the cupboards to find the handle to open them. It looks like a single piece of wood to Alex, that's until he spots the almost invisible grooves that act as handles. Slowly, he pulls one of the four doors open to see what is behind the screen, nothing but a lot of women's clothing is what he finds in this section as well as the adjacent sections when he peaks his head inside without having to open the other doors. A quick and silent check of the last part reveals the only sanctuary for male leopards clothing, still more substantial than Alex's own set of clothing by a long way.

Having checked the cupboards, Alex sneaks around the bed to behind the partition wall. What he sees is a bathroom sparsely filled with a bath, shower and toilet. The room is larger than what Alex is staying in, it makes him wish he had this amount of space, even just to stay in. The first thing he spots is a painting hanging on the wall, Alex goes up to it and feels around the edge for a safe but finds nothing. It must not be up here, Alex thinks, so it must be in the basement. Since Alex thinks it's in the basement, he thinks the potential takings could be huge, more than he could carry. However, as he turns around, he hears a noise, the ruffling of the blanket. He thinks it's just them tossing and turning in bed as he waits from behind the partition wall. Then he hears the planting off feet on the hardwood floor. His heart starts beating faster, he pleas that they don't come this way. Oh crap, he's coming this way!

Alex stays as still as he can as he becomes more nervous with every step that gets closer. Even in the dark room, he can just see the shadow of the leopard moving in his direction. He walks past Alex and around the wall towards the toilet, as he does so, Alex sneaks around in the other direction. Alex sees the staircase and heads towards it as quickly and silently as he can, however, something catches his eye at the foot of the bed. No wonder the bed was overly large, Alex thinks to himself, the bed is the safe. The covering looks like the side of a mattress, but behind the velcroed covering is a fully functional safe. Even under a bed sheet, he could see the outline of safe, or rather the shimmering lights showed him where it is. In any case, he moves closer to the foot of the bed and lies down on his side so that he won't be seen from on top of the bed if he can be at all. He sends his right hand underneath the top mattress and pulls the bottom of the bed sheet up to reveal only a part of the covering, the outline of which is easily visible even in the dark for him. Alex does this along the length of the covering so he can pull it away. The covering will make a loud noise as the Velcro is taken off, an inadvertent security feature. Therefore, Alex needs a distraction.

He goes back downstairs to the big TV and turns it on, quickly putting it on mute so they don't hear it's use, at least not for now. He searches for a channel that would create the right kind of distraction, not sports, not reality TV, not news, but a movie channel. More precisely, Alex is trying to simulate a break in. It helps that the surround sound will create a believable sense of depth which will make it sound more realistic. Once he finds the right channel and the right program, he turns the TV off and readies the surround sound. He looks for his way back upstairs and turns on the volume, louder than he anticipated, which is a good thing, he doesn't need the mirror to find out why. As soon as he is startled, he moves quickly back upstairs and reaches the top just as he sees the two parents tiredly escape the clutches of warmth from their blanket and move towards the stairs, Alex moves straight away to the foot of bed in anticipation for when they rush down stairs.

At the very least, he will have less than half a minute to at least assess the possible ways on how to crack the safe. Once the father moves downstairs slowly to protect himself, Alex waits for the mother to run past but she doesn't, presumably out of fear. So, he improvises and rips it off in one go when the sound gets loud, hoping to mask the sound of it. He hopes he has timed it right as he slides the cotton covered wood cover under the bed quickly. Alex looks at the security device, a combination tumbler with three dials set inside each other with a number for each one. He presses his ear against the door to listen for the sounds of the safe, made easier by the fact that the surround sound has just been switched off, but that means he has less than 10 seconds to crack the safe, an impossible feat. So he lies at the foot of the bed motionless and most importantly, nervously.

"No!" Alex can hear being exclaimed in disbelief, probably at seeing the discovered safe.

"Get up! Get Up!" He shouts in fear. "Call the police, we've been broken into!"

"What's happened?" She responds tiredly.

"We have to find Nadia, come on, call the police!" He begs. Alex can hear a phone being used with the beep it makes when it's unlocked, most likely via a fingerprint scanner. He can hear the rush of footsteps as they both go downstairs together to check on their daughter. At this point, Alex doubts the veracity of the girls story that her parents don't care, clearly they do otherwise they'd be more concerned about the safe than her. In any case, the raccoon only gets a few more minutes to crack the safe and get out. He begins with the outermost ring, rotating it and checking for the distinctive click that tells him that tumbler is in the correct position. Once done, he proceeds with the next two in quick succession. In under a minute, he picks a combination out of the 274,625 total possibilities. The handle doesn't turn.

_It must be a false tumbler lock, _Alex thinks as he retries his combination again.

The clicks he heard threw off Alex into getting the wrong combination by 'clicking' at another number instead of the correct one. So he begins again, going around and feeling for the point when the tumbler latches onto a notch inside the inner workings of the vault. He knows what the sound is when that happens but they sound almost identical, the fake and real clicks, it takes an expert to even have a vague idea of which one is which, and to be clear, Alex is not an expert at safecracking. It's always been one of his weaker abilities, no matter how much he has tried to improve at guessing or cracking combinations. After Alex tries another combination, he tries the handle again to no avail. Alex begins weighing up the chances of him taking more attempts before the police arrive, it wouldn't take him more than 30 seconds to leave the house via the same way he got in. So Alex tries again, a third time, and it doesn't open.

Frustrated, he lashes out at the ground with a muffled thump of his fist before looking back at the lock. Alex even tries again, one last time he tells himself, and it still doesn't open. He's so close to the prize, but can't get at it. Alex gets up quickly and opens a sliding door to the top floor balcony so he can hear the police coming. Alex goes back to the lock again and continues to try and break it's impervious stranglehold on the bed-safe's contents. A fifth try, a sixth try and a seventh try all fail to open up the safe. At this point he wishes that his sister Erin was here, she would have taken only one try to crack a safe he thinks, but she couldn't be persuaded to leave school to join him. 'Time's up', Alex thinks as he peers over the balcony and sees no flashing lights or sirens but a police car outside the property. Now is the time to bail, he thinks. Alex puts the cover back on the safe and then leaves the bedroom, running down one flight of stairs to go out the same way he went in. He sees the police car doors open and two officers go out as he peers over the balcony before going over the railing and onto the same cable. Compared to the lock cracking, this should be an easy feat for Alex to go straight over the top of them and away to safety.

The first few steps are predictably straight forward, using his cane to balance himself. Each step is a step further away from this failure of his, it's almost a sigh of relief to be doing this. However, in the same recurring motif of the night, Alex slips on the cable as he takes a step. He pulls his cane in to try and hang from the cable but the cable snaps as he comes down. Luckily for him, he falls onto the soft grass but the falling cable catches their attention. They turn on their flashlights and begin to scan for the intruder; not knowing or seeing that he is right in the open. Alex sees the flashlights searching over the lawn, the light not revealing a fallen raccoon. That raccoon gets back up and moves out of the way towards one of the pillars of the gate, wondering if he's a cat considering the amount of lives he's had tonight. Alex hears the officer's sailing into the intercom, asking for them to open up the gate. It's his ticket out of here, but he can't relax at all; if he does, he will be spotted. As the large motorised metal gate is slowly slid open into the wall the two officers walk in and Alex goes out, empty handed.

If there's one thing on his mind, it's that his trip to Indonesia ends now and the soonest way out of the country is his destination.


	8. Early Rise and Fall

**Chapter 8 – Early Rise and Fall**

**Central London, England. 6:23am, 4****th**** November 2032.**

"Wake up."

Alex opens up his eyes in surprise and instantly fumbles for his mirror that doesn't find his body. This is why he can't use an alarm.

"Wake up Alex."

He tries to calm down and eventually succeeds in less than half a minute. What could 'Il Ladro' want to do more than ironically steal his sleeping time?

"I'm up." Alex replies as he gets up and kneels on the couch to see the hologram watching down on him.

"I'm sorry to wake you up, but you have to move quickly, he's already left for the bank." Antonio warns.

"The bank doesn't open till 10am." Alex argues.

"Neither does the bank hold accounts for drug dealers." Antonio counters.

"How do you know all of this?" Alex asks after digesting his comeback.

"I have friends in this business who have some favours indebted to me." Antonio explains.

"How long do I have?" Alex asks.

"Not long, just go, hurry!" He urges, which prompts Alex to race towards Matt's room and trigger the silent alarm.

"Get up, the heist is starting!" Alex shouts. "Tyson get up!"

He has no time to check if they actually do wake up, he's too focused on the task he has to accomplish. He reaches for his cane, backpack, earpiece and glasses and race out of the apartment and down the stairs like before. Even though he is tired and hungry, the heist happens when it happens. He races out of the front door and into the darkness of the early morning, following the same path that he took last time. Once on the roof of the apartments, he goes into a full sprint. As he does so, Matt's face appears in the top left corner.

"Thanks for getting up." Alex says as he runs along.

"Cut to the chase, you have to get to the bank and look out for this courier and the way he's carrying the money. We'll have to adapt depending on what he's using to carry the money." Matt warns.

"I've got it covered." Alex says.

"You don't know if he's going to be using a duffel bag or a suitcase or a backpack or even if he or she's got a ride." Matt argues.

"2 million dollars is about 20 kilos of money. I can do maths as well." Alex replies.

"Very funny." Matt replies, unamused.

After jumping onto the side of the building, sneaking across the side, climbing up to the next set of buildings running to the end, not needing to get across to the building he was on before, Alex can see the bank, unopened and secure, only because of the exterior lamps outside this bank.

"Just stay focused on the bank, I'm going to help watch." Matt says as Alex sees Tyson walk past in the camera feed, fully clothed this time.

"Get Tyson to go to the bank as well." Alex instructs to Matt.

"He can hear you." Matt says.

"What?" Tyson exclaims.

"Go to the bank and help out Alex." Matt instructs.

"I was hoping to get a workout in this morning." Tyson argues.

"Later, now go, and put these on." Matt says as he hands out a set of sunglasses and earpiece. Tyson takes some time fiddling the earpiece into his ear, which annoys Matt.

"Hurry up." Matt says, clearly agitated.

"I'm going." Tyson says as he runs towards the door. Alex sits and watches the bank with all the alertness he has for this hour.

"I forgot to ask, the scan, the virus scan. How did that go?" Alex asks since there's nothing else that's better to do.

"I haven't checked yet, I'll do it now." Matt says as he switches programs on his computer.

"The phone's clean and…" Matt says calmly before seeing the results of his own 'secure' computer.

"Is it bad?" Alex asks. Matt doesn't answer, too embarrassed to say so, instead he puts a screen capture of his computer in Alex's view. He doesn't understand all of the computer terminology in front of him.

"Explain it to me." Alex asks.

"Ransomware, my computer's being ransomed." Matt says despairingly.

"But it's right in front of you" Alex says, unfamiliar with the concept.

"No, they've locked all the files so I can't access them, we have to pay money into an account to unlock them again." Matt explains. "The amount is very precise, £1,975,301."

"You don't think that's the exact amount of money I'm about to steal?" Alex asks.

"It's a safeguard in case we steal it." Matt says. "JLP really wants his money."

"I think I can see the courier coming down the street." Alex says. Matt's face just turns to complete disbelief as he says this, at the same time, Alex's view of the computer screen is suddenly cut off. What Matt sees on his end is nothing short of an obscene taunt, this is a message meant specifically for Matt.

_Good morning… I want my money… you want your computer… There's only one way this can happen… _

The typed words appear on the screen, row by row, revealing their sadistic plot.

_If you warn him... I corrupt your computer… if you don't… I remove the virus. Ready?_

"Matt?" Alex asks, hoping it's a temporary glitch as he stares intently at the courier walking casually and slowly towards the bank.

Meanwhile in the apartment, the mood is simply of futile dread. The feeling of being not in control and with nothing to stop it's impending course. It's what he sees right now on the screen, a camera from right behind Alex's position only 5 metres or so, attached to the chest of this assailant.

"Alex! Someone's behind you!" He says completely in vain into the camera, hoping that he can save Alex. Matt expects to see Alex turn around and fight this attacker, but he doesn't move, almost paralysed at watching the courier. The computer is replicable, as is most of the data on it in the form of backups, but there is no replacing Alex. The person puts a silent hand in front of the camera and stretches out his fingers including the thumb; A countdown, until what?

Matt can't look but he has to, half turned away and yet staring at the same time. Matt's furious that he didn't hold up his end of the bargain, but the rat is quickly learning that honour is a far off ideology for this person. One finger retracts, and then another, and another before the thumb retracts painfully slowly for added infliction of pain unto Matt.

"Hello." The person greets from behind. Alex turns his head but it's too late, he is too slow to react. The assailant's out stretched arms lash out at Alex, trying to shift the raccoon over the edge. Alex tumbles forward towards the edge and tries to stick out his hands to grip onto the edge. The figure moves forward calmly but urgently and kneels down to prevent the raccoon from surviving, in the process, he changes the camera to an infrared vision to depict Alex hanging invisibly off the edge of the building. He reaches out for his fingertips and begins to release them from their grip. It may be dark, but the voice gives it away even if it has changed significantly since he last heard it. Alex tries his best to hold on and regain his stability.

"Goodbye." The assailant says with a sarcastic sigh, as he lifts the last hand off the edge to send the raccoon plummeting towards the ground, he doesn't even need to see him hit the ground to know that he has done so. A job done quickly, he turns off the camera and begins to run off and hide before the sun fully rises.

However, Alex did not hit the ground or anything on the ground, he only fell one story and simply latched on to the edge of a window. He hangs invisibly off the edge, figuring out whether to go up or down. The climb up is almost impossible due to a lack of hand and foot holds. With time running out, Alex drops down one story again before waiting in a gap in the foot traffic to drop down to ground level. He instantly looks for a place to hide, somewhere where he can reappear without being suspicious. He finds a dark corner near a shop door and checks himself to make sure he's actually seeing himself and not a mental image of where he should be. All the while, he takes little peaks at the highly clothed person walking along the opposite side of the street who approaches the bank with an unaltered calm pace who now waits outside the bank. Alex decides to also wait to see what he is doing and find out what sort of method the courier is using to carry the money. Alex sees a clerk peak out of the door and pass out two black duffle bags, both of which look heavy.

Since the glasses aren't receiving any communication, he reaches to take them off but just as he touches them, they begin transmitting.

"You fixed it." Alex gleefully says, some good news for this morning.

"No, I didn't. But we…" Matt begins to explain.

"Then who did?" Alex asks.

"That's the courier right there, Tyson should be nearby to help you out." Matt explains.

"Thanks for that." Alex replies, but he's detected that something in Matt's general speech is off. "Are you okay?"

"We can talk about it later, for now, 2 mil right in front of us." Matt says, trying to get Alex, and himself, to focus on the issue at hand.

"Right." Alex notes as he watches the courier begin to walk down the street as casually as he arrived except that he's slowed down somewhat by the weight of all the cash. "I'm moving in."

"Don't be seen or he might bolt." Matt warns. "Tyson?"

"Yes." Tyson radios in, still getting used to the earpiece.

"Do you see Alex and the courier up ahead?" Matt asks. Tyson is about 100 metres away from Alex down the street.

"I see the courier but not… wait I see Alex, he's crossing the road." Tyson notes.

"Alex, Tyson is down the road." Matt warns.

"Got it." Alex whispers as he nears the courier. Silently, he retracts his cane and looks for what to do. The courier holds one bag in each hand, with each bag almost touching the ground as he walks along. He sees the one place that would get them both at the same time, the fleece covered neck. Alex raises his cane and wraps it around his neck, forcing him backwards towards the ground. The bags hit the ground almost instantly, but he makes sure that the courier doesn't, Alex wants answers.

"Who is your employer?" Alex asks furiously, hanging him by the neck from his cane. The courier buckles his knees to lever himself up and sit on the ground.

"Who?!" Alex asks harshly as the courier tries to break free by pulling down on the cane to unbalance his attacker. Alex is not fazed and is too intent on getting this one answer from his victim.

"Take the money, just let me go!" He begs having tried so hard to stay silent.

"Who is your employer?!" Alex asks again.

"I don't know!" He pleas. He sounds like he's younger than Alex and that really puts the raccoon off. He freezes in the middle of the street as the courier kid scrabbles his way to safety, running at top speed down the street. Alex sees him take off and lets him be, he's got these bags of cash to take. Alex opens up the zipper of a bag and finds bundles of cash that light up Alex's eyes; his first big payday. However, that elation turns to confusion as he inspects one of the notes. The large picture of the king has been altered significantly.

Alex looks back up again to see where the courier has gone, thinking about whether to chase after him or not considering how far away he is right now. But that decision is made up for him as he sees Tyson burst from one side of the street and drag him back, unable to match up to the tiger's brute strength.

"Can you analyse this face?" Alex asks, holding a fake 100 pound note in front of the glasses.

"I'm guessing it's him." Matt says straight away.

"I know who it is." Alex says, confidently but nervously.

"It's…." Matt tries to answer as a pang of dread rushes through his body, it's brings back haunting memories.

"Wait, are you okay?" Alex asks as he watches Tyson escorts the courier down the street towards Alex. Matt holds his head in his hands, not wanting to been seen as he descends into the traumatic horror.

"I need a minute." Matt says with difficulty, Matt's feed goes away as Tyson shepherds the courier back to Alex.

"I caught this guy running off, thought you might need him back." Tyson says as the courier gulps in his throat.

"Thanks." Alex says before grabbing a bundle of 'money' out of the bags. "What is this?"

The courier is reluctant to answer but Tyson cracks his knuckles in his fists and that action makes him pop.

"I promise, it's not counterfeit." The courier worriedly answers.

"Then, answer me, what is this?" Alex asks, not a politely as before.

"It's money, yes, it's money." The courier states adamantly but nervously.

"No it's not, this is paper, this is fake!" Alex states.

"No it's real! Please, I beg you." The courier argues, worried there's punishment if he doesn't convince them of his views.

"How is this real money then?" Alex interrogates forcefully.

"It's a currency! A currency!" The courier argues again.

"Okay then." Alex begins sceptically. "Are the contents of these bags worth anything?"

"Yes!"

"How much?"

"I don't know!"

"Approximately."

"2 million."

"I mean, compared to real pounds, real dollars, real money; how much are these worth?" Alex asks finally.

"Nothing." The courier answers from under the mountain of clothes.

"Okay, I've had it, just go." Alex commands irately.

"Shouldn't we…?" Tyson begins.

"He doesn't know anything." Alex explains. "Just let him go."

Tyson lets the courier runs straight past him as fast as he did before. Alex calms down a bit before trying to lug one of the bags onto his shoulders to carry.

"Let me take them, it won't suffice for a morning workout, but it will do." Tyson reasons as he picks up the two packs and begins lifting them up and down beside him with outstretched arms as they walk back to the apartment, hoping to workout out his arms on the way.

"You know, when I cracked my knuckles, I just did it for effect, like in the movies. I didn't think it would actually work." Tyson comments as they both walk away, hoping to get this money to the apartment in a timely manner so they can all eat something for breakfast. Alex stays silent, trying to piece together the courier's words and figure out what he meant.

"Listen, if in anyway I was a dick when I was a kid…" Tyson begins to explain, now rich if this money is worth something, he doesn't want to be out of favour with someone he bullied at school.

"You don't have to bring it up, everyone starts at a clean slate, okay? 10 years is a long time, people change, everyone changes."

There couldn't be a more poignant statement.


	9. The Depths of Despair

**Chapter 9 – The Depths of Despair**

**Central London, England. 6:54am, 4****th**** November 2032.**

Alex opens the door into the apartment, with Tyson following behind with the bags of money, and finds Matt lying on the couch facing the ceiling. There are two hard drives plugged into his computer, whirring away in the background.

"We've got the money." Alex says as Tyson puts the two bags down next to the couch. Matt is motionless, still looking at the roof.

"I need you to…" Alex begins.

"Do you think… that perhaps, it's not you that he wants to go after, but me?" Matt states. "I mean, he pushed you off a building. But I had to watch that, knowing I couldn't do anything to stop it from happening even when I was promised that I could. Who am I kidding? I took a promise from him and now where it's got me, I shouldn't have trusted him, I have no reason to."

"I don't think it's you he wants to go after, but all of us." Alex states, trying to share out Matt's woes as the rat sits up on the couch.

"Yeah." Matt says pausing to think on that statement, but finds a flaw in it. "But how about you Tyson? You're the only one not to be threatened."

"Wait, isn't that a good thing?" Tyson asks in confusion.

"I don't know, maybe it means that we can use this to our advantage, but I don't see how yet. Anyway… pass me a bundle of the money. I think I've figured out what it might be." Matt announces. Alex bends down and unzips the bag and tosses a bundle of cash over to Matt.

"Okay, here's a question, what makes this money different to a real currency?" Matt asks.

"That it's fake?" Alex asks.

"No, that's where you're wrong. Anything can have value; it's just that this money is only valuable to some people. Imagine if they took away the pound and the banks declared that they wouldn't accept it or use it, then it would only be worth the piece of paper and ink on the note itself. It's funny to imagine that our entire monetary system is based on the belief that these printed pieces of money and minted coins are worth what's printed on them."

"Okay, so… who's this money valuable to?" Alex asks.

"Apart from him, I don't know." Matt answers. "But as long as someone else believes it's worth something then it's worth 2 million… units of whatever it's called, otherwise we've received 20,000 pieces of inked paper."

"I should call 'Il Ladro' and inform him we are successful so that we can get out of here" Alex answers.

"Yes, do that." Matt says, wanting to get as far away from Jeremy as possible. Alex boots up the holographic projector and redials the blocked number that has called them several times before.

"Yes?" Antonio asks, sipping from a cup of espresso.

"We've got the money." Alex says.

"Good." Antonio answers.

"But it's not normal money."

"You still have a bit to learn." Antonio says, in a kind way, like it was some fatherly advice. But Alex will never accept him as his father. "What you should have is around 2 million in a currency which has no name, like the person who created it has no name."

"He does have a name." Alex confidently states. "Jeremy, Initials J.L.P."

"Is that right? Well, I…" Antonio says still trying to figure out to express the meaning of this to his protégé as well as reliving the fears of old. "…I haven't heard of that name in years."

"What name?" Alex questions the old raccoon. Antonio takes a deep breath.

"Le Paradox!" Antonio shouts, like he has to get it off his chest.

"No! No! Noooooooooooo!" Alex shouts as well, putting his hands in his head as he sits down on the ground to contemplate what he's thought all along and hoped would never eventuate. It all adds up, he knows what's in the Thievius Raccoonus, he's read the stories of Le Paradox and their history. He hoped it was all just a coincidence, it's a skunk coming after the Cooper line; lightning can't strike twice could it?

"Le Paradox?" Matt asks in confusion whilst also being concerned for his friend's behavior.

"It just keeps getting worse." Alex comments.

"I didn't promise an easy ride." Antonio notes.

"Did you know?" Alex asks with a hint of anger.

"I didn't think that…" Antonio tries to explain.

"Of course you don't know." Alex sarcastically begins. "You surely know everything, so how come you didn't know about this. Oh wait, it's 'cause you're not my dad!"

"Don't become irrational." Antonio warns. "I wouldn't even dare, I have too much respect for him."

"Is this entire plan for you to wipe out Le Paradox? Because you can't do it, you needed someone else, someone with history, someone with a reason to do it." Alex argues, emotions are getting the better of him.

"That's not my intention." Antonio replies calmly.

"Oh yeah? Then what is it?!" Alex asks. "Tell me."

Antonio pauses, Alex keeps pressing.

"Tell me!" Alex shouts.

Antonio lets out a sigh, the over exuberance of youth is something that can't be changed.

"You can either believe what I said earlier, or you can leave. Return to your pitiful existence; throw away the best opportunity of your life to fulfill your hopes, dreams and destiny. Do you really want to be a doctor's assistant?" Antonio argues calmly without raising his voice.

"You've tapped my phone?" Alex asks, having lost some of his fury from being quieted down. "You said it was clean." He asks quietly to Matt.

"It is." Matt reaffirms from the couch.

"Please, let us move on with our lives and discuss our next venture." Antonio says, moving on the conversation. But before he can continue, there is a knock at the door.

"I can't be seen, call me back when you are able." Antonio explains before the call gets terminated.

"I'll answer it." Tyson declares. "If someone's here to kill us, they won't get past me."

Alex moves towards his cane, just in case and Matt stays stationary, thinking that it can't possibly be a life and death situation. Tyson moves slowly towards the door and lightly grips the handle, which would be stronger than a normal persons grip. He then turns it and opens the door quickly to reveal something unexpected; not an army of policeman or soldiers, but a girl by herself.

"Hi, we're not interested." Tyson says.

"Wait!" She says, hoping the door will stay open but it's shut with only a minute percentage of Tyson's strength.

"Just please, please help me out." She pleads, hoping to guilt the tiger into opening the door again.

"Not interested." Tyson repeats, strolling back into the main living area with satisfaction.

"Just some random person, no trouble." Tyson explains.

"I'll redial Antonio back on the line." Matt says, operating the holographic projector to reacquire the signal.

"Okay, So. Our next plan is located in Romania, I suggest we leave for there as soon as we can." Antonio explains. "There's a group of items going up for sale in 3 weeks time, a very expensive group of items I should say. "A set of 5 paintings, each one on it's own could sell for $2 million, but together, they'd be worth more than $20 million."

"The full set is worth more than the sum of it's parts." Matt notes.

"The only problem is that, they won't go to auction; because you will have them in your possession before they make it to the auction table." Antonio explains.

"Are you serious?" Alex moans.

"I have it on good information that 3 of the paintings are stolen themselves and are only resurfacing now because they all coming together. I know about how you prefer to steal from other criminals; that's said, please don't steal from me. Oh and you better turn that money into some useable currency, otherwise it won't help you much outside of the criminal world. On a side note, who wants to be a diamond merchant?" Antonio asks cheerfully.

Tyson and Alex turn their attention to Matt.

"Why me?" Matt complains.

"Because, why not?" Alex reasons. After a bit more staring, Matt agrees to go along with being a diamond merchant.

"Good, when you exchange the money, find a place to set up and get started. Antwerp's not for the faint hearted." Antonio warns. "See you all in Constanța."

Alex sighs at the significant jump in difficulty they will face.

"Is this guy serious? We're going to go from robbing one guy to taking on an auction house, a Romanian auction house probably full of security guards, a huge safe and a lot of traps." Alex thinks out loud.

"Then you're going to need some help."

Alex instantly disappears from view, not recognizing the foreign voice in the room. The other two whip their heads around quickly to see who it is. Tyson knows that what he sees means that he has failed, but how could he be blamed? He locked the door securely when he prevented the hawker from chatting and wasting his time. Tyson stands up to assert his physical dominance over her but she isn't intimidated.

"Get out or I'll make you do it!" Tyson shouts.

"Who is she?" Matt asks, half hiding behind Tyson's strength.

"Please, I'm not scared." She replies.

Tyson takes this rebuffing of his warning as a challenge, therefore he lunges into battle. He walks forwards and tries to wrestle her out of the apartment with Matt sitting on the couch, watching in his well-accustomed role as observer. But Tyson's lunge is dodged with a calm ease. Tyson tries again to force this intruder out of the room but before he knows it, he's on the ground having been tripped up in the process. She then slowly walks towards Matt, which causes the rat to panic. He begins to back away from the intruder, fearing harm.

"Please don't." Matt says, scared for the umpteenth time this morning.

"I'm not going to hurt you." She says playfully.

"Stop there!" Alex shouts, pointing the Taser gun he found in Matt's room at the foreign individual.

"So you're Alex Cooper." She says, unconcerned by the gun pointed at her.

"Not a word." Alex warns, he's already on edge, his finger on the trigger. As he hoped but didn't think would happen, she remains silent.

"You're going to get out of here, and not come back." Alex explains.

"Fine, I could just dial up the police and tell them that you're here right now, or, you can let me help you guys out. You clearly need some professionalism around here." She explains.

"Don't try anything big guy, I know that you're there." She warns despite not turning her head. Tyson was trying to sneak up from her left and hopefully get lucky a third time around.

"You have one minute to convince me not to pull the trigger." Alex gives the challenge, clearly emotionally distressed from the combination of events this morning.

"Okay." She says, still remaining in the opposite emotional state as Alex. She backpedals slowly towards the bags of money. Alex steps forward at the same pace she does to keep the pistol trained on her until he is in the main living area watching as she takes out a bundle of cash from the stolen bags.

"This guy on the front. Jeremy Le Paradox. You have some of his money, his special currency used only by his dealers." She explains. "You need it changed into real money, I can get it done. The exchange rate is roughly one to one."

"Is that all?" Alex asks.

"What if I said I want him gone as much as you do, not as much as your nervous friend though. So our interests are aligned." She explains as she tosses the bundle of notes onto the top of the bag.

"Not enough." Alex warns. Tyson stands ready to bundle her out of the door when required. She signs heavily, knowing she would have to play her ultimate trump card.

"I hoped I wouldn't have to do this." She says as she slowly tries to walk forward to whisper something to Alex, something very private. But Alex doesn't know what she is trying to do, so he reasserts his control of situation.

"What are you trying to do?" Alex asks, getting slightly nervous.

"Whisper something." She says casually. Alex looks over to Matt for relief.

"Matt, take the gun and aim it at her." Alex asks, passing the Taser over to him. Matt stands with two hands on the Taser, the perfect grip, as if he had just been trained by a firearms expert…

…on the Internet.

She goes up, casually but Alex is getting nervous. He's afraid of what she might say, it's going to be more powerful than the last two things he knows, just what exactly that may be is a complete unknown. He has to keep all options on the table just to be safe, but he fears the worst. She whispers four words into his ear, and he is immediately convinced that she has to join them. He knew in the back of his head that she was probably going to say it, just how she knows is a complete mystery to him. But the hammer blow of actually saying it, it makes him just want to hide in a dark corner and cry. It's what he tries to do. He runs away after a few brief seconds of silent contemplation, bursting free of the apartment, running around Tyson and straight out of the door. Matt is concerned, but he can't do anything, at least he feels he can't do anything, not even pull the trigger. Tyson is more willing to throw some punches, which all fail to hit their intended targets, making him only feel just that bit more inadequate before giving up.

"You have to go." Matt says, he can't make it sound as forcibly as he wanted, it's not his personality anyway.

"I'll go talk to him." She says, walking towards the door.

"You don't know where to go." Matt warns.

"What makes you think I do?" She asks innocently.

"Because whatever you said, you made him cry in less than a minute. Is that all you can do? Break people down like that until they're reduced to tears?" Matt accuses. "Get out, just get out." He commands with disappointment for such a cruel person.

"I'm going." She says, making her way hastily to the door and out of the apartment.

"I'm going to find Alex, I'll find her before she does." Matt declares, leaving Tyson in the apartment alone.

"Fine, guess I'll just guard the… everything." Tyson announces to himself, not knowing what he should do.


	10. Unusual Abilities

**Chapter 10 – Unusual Abilities**

**Central London, England. 7:02am, 4****th**** November 2032.**

He can see the sun from here, it's probably the only consolation he's had all morning. It's a decent view if you take into account the skyscrapers that block it's view, he can see it all from the highest point on the building. He sits on the edge, facing the sun with his legs dangling. The raccoon looks down, twenty stories to almost certain death, and all it would take is a push; a push from his two hands that rest on the edge of the building. He doesn't want to push, no matter how distraught; he wouldn't take his own life, no matter how driven he is to the edge, he doesn't want to fall again. But, there's a comfort in being so close to the edge. The physiological rush of doing something like that is strong; it gives him a sort of lightness, the alertness to do anything if necessary. He can look into a nearby office building, and watch at how it slowly fills up with workers as time goes on. He wonders if one were to look out and see a blue shirted raccoon just sitting there in such great despair, would they turn away and continue on or would they do something to make him stop? Just thinking about it is somewhat distressing, that he would make someone feel bad for something he did. It makes him get away from the edge and stand on the top in the chilly gusts of occasional breeze.

How could she know? There are only four people who he can think of right now who would know about his strange ability. Two of them are in prison, one of them is himself and the other is his sister Erin. Oh how he wishes that she was here, she's the only one who knows that could be here, she would know how to deal with this person this stranger who is just the cherry on top of a whole cake of realized fears.

"Alex?" A voice calls out.

The raccoon's head turns around and sees Matt shutting the door to the rooftop as a gust of icy wind blows, sending a slight chill up Alex's legs.

"Are you okay?" Matt asks as he slowly approaches his friend. Alex lets out a sigh, there's only one answer to this question.

"No, no I'm not okay." It feels good to admit it.

"Well then, what's wrong?" Matt asks, wondering how to continue his enquiry.

"I don't know why…" Alex begins but he lets out a little chuckle at how stupid he was. "…why I didn't say this earlier."

All Matt can do is nod and listen.

"I can turn invisible." Alex admits. He hopes it doesn't take Matt back a step in the fact that it would probably destroy his scientific way of thinking.

"That's… um, useful I guess?" Matt replies, he's trying to remain calm on the outside and not react with more questions. He doesn't want to let scientific curiosity get in the way of sensitivity.

"Yeah, sometimes it's saves my life, others… it's a complete nuisance." Alex explains.

"Just sit down, not on the edge, just, here." Alex says, hoping it would be the right spot, about 5 metres away from the edge, sitting upright, they can just see the London skyline. They both sit down on the hard concrete floor with air-conditioning and heating systems whirring quietly behind them; along with rows of solar panels that are even quieter, silent even.

"The weird part about it… is that I can't control it. It's like an involuntary self defense mechanism. If I get surprised I just disappear like a blink, I blink out of existence until I calm down. If I get nervous, it's easier to prevent it from happening, I just have to stop being nervous. I was, more self confident, when we first met. But now I have to be that way just to fit in. I'm not like that anymore; I'm probably just as scared and nervous as you about everything. But… I can't show it, I have to be confident in everything, even if I don't know what to do or get scared. If you think I'm crazy or something…" Alex explains.

"I believe you." Matt says.

"Why?" Alex asks after a brief pause.

"I've seen it." Matt answers, scratching the back of his head. "He, had a camera strapped to his chest, and when he pushed you, you disappeared like he pushed you literally out of existence. But, then he changed the camera to an infrared setting and you were there. I knew there'd have to be only one conclusion, even if it didn't necessarily agree with me at first."

"But, what you have to know is, that I can't control it like an on or off switch, I think my dad could, but…" Alex explains, he feels way more comfortable now than when he was first explaining it before.

"Wait… you mean?" Matt says, figuring it all out for himself.

"Yep." Alex says with a nod.

"So you inherited it from your father?" Matt asks.

"Not totally it seems." Alex says.

They sit in silence for another 10 seconds, both waiting for the other to say something.

"I'm a freak." Alex says out of the blue.

"What?"

"Admit it."

Matt remains silent.

"Who else do you know that has such an unusual ability like me? " Alex asks.

"Tyson has an unusual ability to support his upper body with his pair of legs." Matt jokes, it's very brave considering the circumstances.

"Yeah." Alex says, trying to contain his laughter.

"Even she has those dinner plate ears, think about having to live with that." Matt jokes.

"So, what about you?" Alex asks after laughing again.

"Somehow, I have the unusual ability to keep us all together, if only for one day." Matt answers.

"Well, someone has to." Alex comments before realizing something. "What's going happen when you're in Belgium?"

"It'll be the same I think, just from several thousand kilometres away, the Internet nowadays is much more stable than what it used to be." Matt answers. "Except I'll be selling diamonds in the capital of diamonds. If only I was on the planet made of diamonds."

"Are you serious about that last one?" Alex asks out of curiosity.

"Yeah, there's a planet, very far away which has a core that's made entirely of diamond." Matt explains.

"Really? Well, the things you learn." Alex comments.

"You're already thinking about how to steal it, aren't you?" Matt asks. The mood has really brightened up now.

"A whole planet? It can't fit in my pocket." Alex answers.

"Tell me how you would steal it while we walk back downstairs, this weather's becoming typically miserable." Matt says, standing up to get to the rooftop door.

"So I'd need a spaceship, a lot of spaceships, and rope…." Alex begins thinking about this hypothetical situation. They both chat about how they would pull off such a daring heist in outer space as they descend down the stairs, not bothering to take the lift.

"…When I send the planet through the worm hole like you suggested, how would I know that it would end up near earth?" Alex asks as they near the 10th floor.

"You have to hope, have faith that it will work again, that the wormhole hasn't changed once you've used it." Matt explains.

"So, I'd place my faith in a worm hole to deliver me millions of tonnes in diamonds?" Alex asks.

"Yes, but when it gets there, you'd single handedly crash the price of diamonds because of all of your new supply you've brought back with you, basic economics." Matt answers as they reach the 10th floor.

"Only if I choose to sell." Alex notes.

Matt opens up the door and sees that same tan white fox leaning with her back against the front door, seemingly waiting for them to arrive after having given up in finding the location of Alex Cooper.

"Look, I'm…" She says, trying to apologise.

"One question." Alex says, still completely disappointed at her. "How do you know?"

She reaches into her pair of jeans and takes out a folded piece of paper.

"I stole this off a private investigator." She answers, unfolding the piece of paper and handing it to Alex to read over, Matt looks over it as well. It's a detailed profile of Alex, with a lot of notes at the bottom about the various predictions he made over 10 years ago about the fate of this displaced raccoon.

_Other notes: Alex Cooper is not a normal kid, his only obsession is about his parents and presumably their occupation of choice, which is being a master thief. Reality won't cure him, neither would a good education, nothing would quell his desire to follow in his footsteps. (__Revisit this when older) ._

_No doubt he will become a thief, finding him early will be crucial to prevent him growing out of control. _

_DNA sequencing is complete, but gave unforeseen results. __Compare with Sly_

_Sequencing analysis complete, both share unique genes._

_Similar to prison officer's statement? Believable?_

_Adaptive camouflage? Invisibility? __Believable? Genetic Link?_

_If so, highly dangerous._

"This is a copy?" Alex asks, he wonders how many more people could possibly know.

"Yeah." She replies. "I used his photocopying machine, deleted the history and took this for myself, he probably doesn't know a thing."

"From who?" Alex asks.

"I don't know his name, I just did what I have to do, I got some information about you before I came here, I didn't want to be under prepared." She replies.

"How did you know it would be there?" Alex asks, continually searching for the source. 

"What's the problem about me knowing?" She asks.

"Because I don't know that you know, which means that someone else knows." Alex answers, it's turning into an endless trail of questions that never finds the source.

"Is it really so bad?" She asks, considerably less concerned than Alex is.

"Of course it is! What I have is not normal." Alex replies.

"Just don't worry about it." She says nonchalantly.

"Ah!" Alex exclaims, waving his arms in the air. Alex is arguing a losing battle, he's becoming more and more exasperating with every passing second while his opponent is ice cold.

"Fine, okay. I'll listen to you." He says, admitting defeat but not inwardly. In his head, he's drawing up some plans. "Let's all just get out of here and move on once we can get the money."

"Agreed." She concurs. "I can get the money changed in an hour, I know a dealer."

"So what do you do then?" Alex asks out of curiosity before he re-enters the apartment.

"Anything that involves a profit." She replies.

"Hmm." Alex grunts as he opens the door. "Go and take the money."

"Okay." She replies. She walks in and grabs the two bags of money, both slung over her shoulders and leave the apartment. Alex and Matt wait for her to leave before they go in.

"Hey, um, what's you name?" Alex asks before she steps into the elevator.

"Jess." She replies before steeping into the elevator.


	11. Cash Withdrawal

**Chapter 11 – Cash Withdrawal**

**Central London, England. 7:26am, 4****th**** November 2032.**

It's at last she can take a deep breath and put down the bags for just a brief second of respite. She looks up at the security camera, and reminds herself that she could not break cover until she was absolutely sure she was not being watched. Being undercover is always a favourite of Charlotte's; it's what she's good at and what she likes. This is what gets criminals in jail, not piles of paper requiring signatures on every single page. Since when has bureaucracy ever solved a crime? This is where it all happens, she's glad that she's here now and that she played it perfectly, perfectly being she wasn't caught. All it took was that she had to first of all believe she was a criminal, if that would happen then everything else would fall into place.

She reaches the bottom floor and walks under the weight of the bags through the front door. She walks around the corner, where she would be out of sight of any security cameras or prying eyes from the apartment, and enters a waiting car. She puts the two bags on the back seat with her.

"Is that it?" Her handler asks.

"Yeah, exactly what I said. Two million in this currency." She answers.

"Did he touch any of the notes?" He asks.

"No, I did." She replies.

"You know you just contaminated important evidence to convict him." He advises her with disappointment.

"We don't need that, besides, I have something even better." She answers.

"What exactly?" He asks.

"But first, I need £1.8 million in the next hour." She demands.

"Are you serious?!" he asks.

"Just think that this money buys Interpol a seat into the inner circle of Alex Cooper. You get eyes and ears and an eventual arrest that would send him and his gang in for life instead of 2 years. They're planning to steal 5 paintings at an auction in Romania in 3 weeks time, they'll do it before the auction takes place." Charlotte explains.

"I don't have the authorization to do that for you. You have to take this up with the chief." He explains. "I presume…"

"Just drive." She says.

"That's it!" He shouts, it's the final straw. "I've had enough of your attitude, you have no respect for you fellow officers, most of all me. I'm not going to drive you anywhere!"

"Fine, get out." She says nonchalantly.

"Excuse me?" He asks, he wants to punch her so hard, screw it that she's a girl.

"Get in the back or I'll make you do it." She warns before getting out of the car to get into the driver's seat, she waits outside for him to get out. After trying to stare her out, and failing, he gets out and tries to slam the door shut but she prevents him from doing so. She gets into the driver's seat, adjusts the seat and mirrors and heads off.

"Now, you're going to get that money I asked for." She explains condescendingly.

"I said, I can't. I don't know if everything was handed to you on a silver platter before, if so, I intend for that to stop and learn the real way to do things." He explains.

"You will and can do it, who's my boss again? You can get this done and have it waiting for me when I arrive." She replies.

"They won't authorize it." He says adamantly from the back seat.

**25 minutes later**

"Request approved." The bureau chief announces to her from opposite his desk. "The Bank of England will deliver the money as soon as they can."

"Thank you." She replies thankfully.

"My I have a private word with your handler for a second?" Asks the owl in his later 30's.

"My pleasure." She replies courteously. This really peeves off her handler as he sits next to her. He really wants to vent it all out the second she leaves the office. She leaves the room in a playful way with a smile on her face, knowing that once again it has gone her way. She even shuts the door on the way out.

"What the hell have you done?!" He asks irately.

"Jamison, while your numerous complaints have not gone unnoticed, there is no doubt about her talent. Even if you recommend at the end of the trial period that I disallow her promotion, I will approve it regardless. Having found a way into the inner sanctum of the most dangerous upcoming criminal in the world, presumably, is a monumental achievement for someone of her standing. Think about it like this, the £1.8 million pounds is an investment, we capture Cooper while he's relatively small and remove him from the population and save ourselves tens, even hundreds of millions in future stolen goods and operations because of what she is going to do." The chief explains.

"But she's a disrespectful brat who doesn't follow orders." Jamison argues.

"Who cares? She gets results." The chief argues. "Get that into your head."

"Yes, sir." Jamison replies.

"If she asks for anything else, call me and it will happen, don't let your judgment cloud hers you got it?" He asks.

"You're saying that she's better?" Jamison asks.

"I'm saying she's in charge, you have to be there because of the regulations, If I was the one in charge she would be solving cases on her own by now." The chief responds.

"Just say yes, don't make it sound so complicated." Jamison says, he's admitting to himself that he's pretty much worthless in their partnership.

"I'll inform you when the Bank of England arrives with the money." The chief replies. "Now I have to take an incoming call with my counterparts about how we will use this currency to go after the drug ring this currency was made for."

Jamison gets out of his chair and walks towards the exit of the chief's office. He steps through the door, knowing that he has been told that he is just a bureaucratic requirement and nothing else. The source of all his problems is just leaning against the wall next to the door playing with her phone. He looks at her being so innocent, but she's the devil to him. Charlotte makes him powerless and insignificant. If she did this to everyone, she'd make it to the top, but there'd be no one below her either.

It takes a further 10 minutes for him to be alerted of the money's delivery. It comes wrapped perfectly in several layers of cling wrap to keep it all perfectly straight and crisp on a steel trolley. It looks like it has just been taken straight from the production line. Charlotte notices there is something badly wrong with the money, not with the amount, but the way it looks.

"It's all wrong." She says to the BoE official that has travelled with such a large sum of money.

"This is exactly what has been requested." The official replies.

"No, it's too neat, this has to look like it's come from a drug dealer." Charlotte explains. "Do we have a note counter?"

"I have brought one along in case you disputed the quantity." The official answers.

"Perfect, we have to do this quickly." Charlotte explains. "They're expecting me back in about half an hour."

"Two things." The chief adds. "You do this in the storeroom under guard, you will be checked before you leave in case you decide to take some for yourself, understood?"

"Yes, sir." She answers before turning to the official. "Help me do this." She asks the official. "We take a bundle and crinkle some one them then group this into bundles of 100."

"I'll grab the counter."

They quickly rush into a storeroom under guard full of old case files and work in a corner with Charlotte and the BoE official start grabbing piles in their hands and bend it in various ways to simulate it being used rather than being fresh. The plastic notes don't crease that much, but they just have to appear to be used. They then pass it into the machine which counts the notes in a blisteringly short amount of time and binds them together with a small piece of paper with the quantity labeled on top. They then toss them into the two bags she arrived in with no care, they fill up quickly and take up almost twice as much space as the cling wrapped bundle that arrived. After 10 minutes, the 180 bundles of money are put into the bags and zipped up, ready for transportation. The official gives one last piece of advice.

"Before you leave, I should tell you that we have a list of all the serial numbers of each note. So if someone deposits it into a bank, we know where it will have come from and be able to trace it."

"Okay." She replies, but she's more focused on getting out here and back to being undercover as soon as possible. She knocks on the door from the inside and invites the guards to search for the money on her person and the official just in case. They are both clean, which allows Charlotte to quickly leave the building and go straight into the car with her unwilling handler waiting. It was a much quicker drive back as the morning rush hour had mostly passed. Jamison parks the car several blocks away from the apartment.

"You know why I'm doing this?" He asks, trying to find a chink in her armour.

"Simulating me walking the way there and back so they don't think I was driven." She replies.

"Just go." He says, it seems there is no end to the torture. She gets out with the two bags on either shoulder and tries to run to make her more tired, but the bags are very heavy and each step is difficult as they jiggle around and pull down on her shoulders which makes her more unbalanced by shifting her centre of gravity left and right. Even if the distance is only 4 blocks, it's a difficult challenge, but she's not as tired as she would like to be. She is too fit, a statement not said very often, Charlotte arrives at the apartment without any sweat, her shoulder's aren't sore and her legs are not cramped as she imagine someone of lesser physical capabilities might be. She continues on into the ground floor of the apartment, still thinking about what her image should be and what she wants them to think of her as. She knows that it's always easiest to be what she naturally is, so she decides to do exactly that after thinking about what they have seen about her earlier.

She boards the lift and waits for it to rise up into the air. As it does this, she tests her strength for fun by trying to hold the bags off the ground as the lift takes off. She finds it to be easier than expected. Charlotte walks out of the lift, thinking that she is no longer Charlotte but Jess as she had said before. She knocks and waits for the door to open. It does but she doesn't hear anyone approach it before then. She suspects who might be answering the door.

"You've got the money?" Alex asks.

"Right here." She replies.

"Perfect." Alex replies before opening the door fully to allow her in. The first thing she notes is that his hand's behind his back, surely he doesn't distrust her that much.

"Do really need to have a Taser on you?" Jess asks.

"Security reasons." Alex comments, showing it in his other hand. "It's not mine."

"Riiiiight." She says skeptically.

"Matt, the money's here." Alex announces to Matt who's working away on his computer, trying to sort out the logistics of their next move as well as make sure his hardware is safe following the recent hacks.

"Good, how much exactly?"

"1.8 million pounds." Jess replies.

"That's plenty." Matt answers. "I'll confirm those train tickets now."

"Open it up, let me see." Tyson says, wanting to see all that money right there for them. Jess opens up the bag, the sight of which is almost blinding to the tiger.

"Damn, we're rich!" He announces joyfully, but his joy is short lived.

"We have to use most of it to set up for the Antwerp heist." Matt explains.

"Antwerp, aren't we going to… um, what's the place called?" Jess asks in confusion but also intrigue.

"Constanța, and yes, but I am setting up another heist whilst you three go and do Constanța." Matt explains as he changes tabs to book something else.

"Hang on, why do you need a train ticket to Paris?" Jess asks.

"Alex wants one." Matt answers succinctly. "And don't ask why, you won't get an answer."

"Is he always like this?" Jess asks as she turns her head to find Alex staring out into the cityscape, standing near the window.

"I've only been with him for a day. I can't judge his behavior in one day." Matt explains quietly.

"Guys, look, mooonnneeeeeeeyyyyy!" Tyson gloats, holding several bundles in the air.

"Calm down already, it's a big pile of money, just relax." Alex urges, peeved off by the constant noise surrounding him where he would just like some time to think to himself about well, everything. It's what he hopes the train journey will give before he arrives at his intended destination in Paris.

"The next train leaves at 10:07am, you can make that one easily, should I book?" Matt asks.

"One ticket, one way." Alex reiterates.

"Done." Matt says, having completed the booking.

"Wait." Jess notes from the email invoice Matt received. "You're using your real name?"

"Why would we? We haven't stolen anything." Matt answers.

"Yet." Alex finishes.


	12. Release

**Chapter 12 – Release**

**St. Pancras International Terminal, England. 10:07am, 4****th**** November 2032.**

The train pulls away at precisely the correct time, moving slowly at first as it moves through the mass of possible railways leading in and out of the station. His two items of baggage rest in the small baggage area near the door of the carriage, both of which were given back to him by the chauffer as he left the apartment. The Labrador had offered his services to take him to the train station, but he refused and told him to take the others to the airport instead, Alex meanwhile took the underground. This service is even quieter than the one he used yesterday, and definitely quieter than the underground, at least in the carriage he is travelling on. He can't help but realize that he travelled on this line yesterday; it seems like such a long time has passed in between with all of the events happening. Now, he has to condense those experiences down into a more explainable one, something he can put into words. He has his phone resting on the tray table in front of him, ready to be used with the desired contact ready to be dialled. It's the only one he'd consider talking to about such personal and difficult problems, well, that's not exactly true. It's the only one he _can_ talk to, the others being his imprisoned parents.

Why not Tim? Sure, Alex respects him for what he did to both of them and Alex can't be any more grateful for not being thrown into an orphanage. It's not that he isn't a bad parent or a bad influence; he's done everything he thought a father would do for their kids. It's not that he isn't untrustworthy, he works as a doctor, and confidentiality is something that the walrus deals with everyday. Alex can't put any blame on him for doing his best, but it comes down to a simple fact: Alex and Erin Cooper are not normal kids. There were always subjects that Tim, for all his intelligence about fixing people to a healthy condition, would not be able to fully comprehend. When he first asked about canes and the book he'd always find them both pouring over in their spare time, he'd get deflected answers. And when he tired to ask them questions about it, even the most basic of questions were met will replies of: 'you wouldn't understand', and yet they were 8 year olds reading through a very thick tome with scribbled writing across it's pages.

Alex dials the phone, there is no one sitting near him so he feels like this is probably the most private setting he can get whilst being contained on the train. He waits for the video call to answer, he hopes for all hope that she picks up. The screen turns to black, her name and picture fade away and are replaced with a live video coming for Erin's own phone, walking through the university. She's changed her hair since Alex last saw her. Her natural light blonde hair, which is even lighter than her light tan skin colour become longer with her hair going down to just above her shoulders. What's most striking for Alex is her fringe going over her forehead with the hair to the left of her right eye; it flows down to just above the eye so it doesn't block her sight. There is no fringe above her right eyes, as that hair is drawn back around her ear. Below her blue eyes and her really pleasant smile is only the top of a sky blue shirt.

"What's up?" She replies. She's wearing earphones, therefore Alex doesn't have to worry about what he's saying becoming overheard by passers by.

"Can you move to somewhere, more private?" Alex asks, he hopes it's no too much trouble for her.

"This is a good as you'll get." Erin replies.

"Doesn't matter." Alex replies. "Anyway, um… I've had a… very, very difficult day these past 24 hours and I just want to, um, I don't know how to say it."

"Is this about work?" Erin asks.

"Yes, it is, and it's been, so… so, painful. Not like physically, but in here." Alex explains as he points to the brain inside his skull.

"In what way, have you found a job now?" Erin asks kindly.

"Yeah, um… not a job, but a series of jobs." Alex corrects.

"Pay well?" She asks.

"Extremely." Alex replies gladly, perhaps it's the only reward he can see that he has earned so far.

"Better than before?" She asks cheerfully.

"Certainly." Alex replies.

"Well, I'm glad you're finding your way now, getting some employment." Erin congratulates.

"Yeah, but it's… I want to talk to you about it." Alex says, wanting to release all of his concerns.

"Talk away." Erin replies. Alex then spends the next 15 minutes describing the details of what happened in the past day. With each little detail he tells, he feels much better about himself in that worries just evaporate from him like a pool of water in the blazing sun.

"How bad was it?" Erin asks.

"It doesn't matter, that's not what I'm worried about. What am I worried about is, whether it'll be like this every single time." Alex answers, taking a deep breath in between. "And then there's the issue of… my condition, it's like I've been violated. It's not just you that knows about it now, this private investigator knows about it."

"Anyone watching you, looking suspicious around you, following you?" Erin asks.

"But I didn't find out about this on my own." Alex continues without acknowledging the previous question, still in disbelief at how it happened. "This… person just shows up at my doorstep, picks the lock to get inside, slams Tyson to the ground and whispers to me…just out of the blue… that she knows and I'm like… it's not possible, but it is and I just broke down."

"It's really that bad huh." Erin comments.

"You won't know, you don't have to live like I live, you don't have what I have." Alex retorts.

"I know, I never said I did. But you're the only one who can keep yourself, not just your condition, but also your behaviour. I'm always here for you as I hope you can do the same for me; but nothing I can do can change who you are. The physical side is easy but the mental side is what gets everyone." Erin explains.

"Speaking from experience?" Alex asks jokingly.

"Just look at everyone passing by." Erin says, turning her camera to show various people walking through the paths of the university as she sits on a bench near a tree. "They've all got problems, unfinished work, more study to do, assignments to submit; it all adds up."

"Those problems aren't like my problems at all." Alex comments.

"My point is, it's how you get past them that counts. There's no doubt that problems and issues are everywhere, but there is a solution out there to them, it's up to you to find it and use it so that you come out better than you were before." Erin explains.

"Okay, tell me how to stop a crime lord from destroying me bit by bit." Alex commands, trying to poke holes in her logic.

"I wouldn't call him a crime lord, more like… your arch enemy." Erin corrects.

"That sounds lame." Alex replies. "Besides, arch enemies are for heroes in comic books. I'm like, as far away from that as possible."

"You're not like that, You're like… somewhere in the middle. Not a hero, not a villain. It's like we're in the grey area, the perfect place to hide." Erin explains.

"So you're in this as well." Alex replies

"Think about it. Was dad as bad as the police said? Was mum as good as the police said? I think they were in the middle area too." Erin explains.

"That explains why they got together." Alex comments.

"And why we're like that as well." Erin adds. Just the act of talking is making Alex feel better at the situation he's facing. They watch each other in silence, Alex doesn't want to hang up, even with the impending signal stopping channel tunnel up ahead.

"Well, I guess I'll talk to you later." Erin says. "See ya."

"Bye."

Alex switches the phone off and 30 seconds later, the cabin of the train loses all natural light and the sound becomes amplified as it descends through the depths underneath thousands of tonnes of seawater and earth. The only thought on his mind is how long will this take until he can call again. But after another 10 minutes, the desire to talk some more just goes away, he hadn't forgotten about it, but rather he focused more on trying to think about his own problems and how he could combat them inside his head. The tunnel ends and the trains cabin lights up again, becoming too bright for some passengers who shield their eyes from the sunlight. Alex is reminded to call Erin by the sudden change in luminosity; he gets his phone out again but stops just as he is about to call. Alex realises that he has to change himself just like Erin had suggested.

**Paris, France. 2:21pm, 4****th**** November 2032.**

A bitterly cold day has the weasel hiding under several layers of clothing; a long sleeve shirt, then a jumper and a thick trench coat to ward off the winds that are channelled by the buildings flanking either side of the streets. His leather-gloved hands are stuck inside the pockets of the trench coat, the right hand holding firmly onto a set of keys, the left onto a briefcase. He's walking quickly to get out of the wind as fast a possible, it's not the temperature itself that is the problem, but the wind's icy chill is penetrating without the right clothing. He fumbles the key out of his pocket and swipes an electronic tag against a reader to get inside. With all the clothing on, each step is weighty with all of the clothing he has on, even if it's only one story he has to climb. He unbuttons the coat in preparation of hanging it on a hook he has near to the door, along with other to hold other items such as his keys. He unlocks it and opens the door, to which he finds something peculiar hanging on one of the hooks.

_Meet in the living room, don't surprise me. _

The weasel takes his overcoat off and reaches for his gun, magnetically powered of course in this age, which is holstered on his waist. The living room is just to the left in his apartment, with a deep purple coloured wall only 3 metres long being the only thing separating their view from each other. The weasel sneaks up against this wall with his gun in front of him, the barrel pointed to the ceiling. Once he reaches against the wall, he listens out for any rustling that might indicate this intruder's position. He then turns around the wall and points the gun at an armchair in the far right hand corner of the room, but there is no one sitting on it. The weasel then looks for other places an intruder could be hiding, including behind the armchair itself, but there are very few places to do so. He suddenly feels a force pulling his gun, it makes him loose grip on it before it simply vanishes into thin air.

"I said, don't surprise me." A voice says from right in front of him.

"Who's there?" The weasel asks, trying to be brave but inside he's petrified, putting his hands up.

"Sit down."

"Who are…?"

"Now, if you please."

The weasel goes and sits in the armchair, wondering what's in store for him today. It's definitely more intriguing than the incidents of missing pets or finding people having affairs. A figure emerges from the room opposite the armchair.

"Remember me?" Alex asks, holding the gun in one hand and the cane in the other.

"How could I forget? The only free person who can turn invisible." The weasel responds. "How's your sister? If I may ask."

"University, but not because of anything you did, that's her choice." Alex replies.

"Good, one Cooper is hard enough to handle, two would be an impossible task." The weasel adds. "So, I guess you didn't break into my apartment just to have a chat."

"How many people know? About, me and disappearing?" Alex asks. "You made a file about me 10 years ago, saying that it was possible that I could do it. Well, recently that file was leaked, someone broke in and copied it. I need to know that there has been no one else that knows about this file."

"It wasn't you then who broke in?" The weasel asks. "If not, do you know who? May I get up and show you the file?"

"I've seen it. A fox, large ears, white tan fur, same build as me, about 20 cm shorter than me, similar age. You're an investigator, you should be able to solve it with that information." Alex replies. However, the weasel knows exactly who he is describing.

"I'll look into it." The weasel replies casually, but still uneasily due to the way he's been cornered in his own apartment.

"So, does anyone else, know?" Alex asks with a slightly more escalated voice.

"Of course not, I had no use for it. Now… I might need to keep it in an easy to access place." The weasel says.

"Okay." Alex replies, calming down. He looks at the gun and tosses it into the weasel's lap; he tries to catch it before it hits him in case of an accidental discharge. "Do that, but it won't help."

Alex begins to walk towards the front door to leave the apartment, knowing that what he set out to achieve has been completed.

"I hope I don't need to meet you again." Alex replies before he turns the corner down the corridor towards the front door.

"Why? Don't like having to empty my gun?" The weasel retorts as Alex walks out of the apartment. He doesn't know why he did this; it's not that much of a financial inconvenience for him since he has the correct permits. The weasel could tell just from the weight of the gun whether or not the magazine was empty, which was confirmed after he separated it out from the main body. Did the raccoon really fear for his own safety? It must be the only reason he thinks, he's didn't act confidently or cockily; he didn't take out each bullet in front of him just to taunt him. In which case, this must be the optimal time to track him down and catch him in the act. But that job won't fall to him, going after Cooper is a monumental task which he's had way to much experience at first hand. He's content with doing his own little bit by not disclosing the fact that the exact person he was describing was the same junior agent he gave the same profile to only yesterday.


	13. Staying Up for More

**Chapter 13 – Staying Up for More**

**Constanta, Romania. 1:43am, 5****th**** November 2032.**

It has been a tiring journey on the train, passing through 7 countries and stopping at each capital city. Alex has forced himself to stay awake for as long as he could but sleep couldn't be avoided forever. As the clock approached midnight, Alex finally went to sleep whilst clutching onto the cane like it was a teddy bear. No one noticed this, as they had all done the same thing as Alex long before and gone to sleep. This city bordering onto the Black sea is not the final stop on it's journey, it has to go all the way to Constantinople into the morning. It's a pity that they can't admire the picturesque view looking out to the sea; it's quite spectacular with the rising or setting sun as it glistens an orange glow.

Along the way, when Alex was a bit more awake, he found out a few of the details he needed to know. The art auction is only a temporary set up at the old Casino, which set right on the coast. A building built a few years before the first world war, and therefore bore the brunt of the 2 subsequent ones as well as many eastern European conflicts. As prosperity came to the region, especially to the east, Romania became a playground for the rich, adorned with fast cars and pompous displays of wealth. This prompted a major renovation of the casino in the late teens to restore it back to it's former glory, as well as a more modern section added on to cater for the needs of a modern day casino.

Only the sound of the message 10 minutes before the train arrived in Constanta woke the passengers up. It makes Alex jolt a little bit, there's no room to swing the cane in the small seat he occupies, he has to concentrate on not doing it, and he was prepared to not turn invisible as he knew they would warn him as they did with every other city the train stopped at. He drags his tired body off the train along with the backpack and cane in hands in the nearly empty train platform in the early morning air. He heads towards the taxi rank with the cold air keeping him going. He hails a cab and calls to go to the casino's adjoining apartment complex built to house all the paying customers, of which their gang has joined the list.

The complex has a tunnel that goes under the road and beachfront path so that the view isn't destroyed by a horrible overpass. Alex enters the lobby, standing out with the class of décor around him. The lobby is as opulent at the actual casino would have been in the 1910's except with modern touches all around like a holographic map of the casino complex from top to bottom, and by bottom it means below sea level, literally below sea level. Some casino tables, high rolling ones, are placed in a toughened glass room which allows them all to see the sea and what lies above, for the most part are rolling waves. Alex sneaks into his own hotel room so he doesn't disturb his two members, Jess and Tyson who have already taken the two bedrooms that this room has, leaving him with a couch that he gladly accepts as a place to sleep on.

**7:43am**

It's only the faintest of noises but Alex picks it up and it wakes him up. The sound of footsteps is light, definitely not Tyson then, so it's Jess walking along the carpet and into the mini-kitchen, across to the fridge, no wait, the pantry. She's hungry but not ready to go down to breakfast yet, she must want to go with Alex or Tyson. All Alex does to know this is just by keeping an ear to the ground and knowing where everything is placed, even in his tired state he still made sure he knew where things were. The couch he sits on faces directly to the balcony, which overlooks the casino and the water beyond. The tiny kitchen with only a bar fridge and a cupboard for snacks is behind him to the left and further to the left there are the two bedrooms which are occupied.

"The cupboards are empty." Alex says, facing out to the balcony whilst lying motionless on the couch. Jess turns around to the source of the sound. The half opened cupboard satisfies Alex's predictions.

"Are you a detective as well as a thief? Both sides of the law?" She asks, without a care for the massive irony of her statement.

"No, I've been into enough hotel rooms to know what's kept inside one." Alex explains as he sits up on the couch and turns his head to face Jess. "The fridge will have a selection of over priced drinks which you shouldn't touch unless you want to be charged for it."

"But we can afford these things, can't we?" Jess asks.

"Just because I steal things doesn't mean I then spend it." Alex explains. "Every cent counts, every last dollar, pound, yen, rouble or euro matters. I've had to live like that and I'm not going to change that now."

"5 euros is nothing compared to £1.8 million, it's way more than I've come across." Jess explains.

"Oh, so what have you done then?" Alex asks, shifting his clothes around so they are comfortable.

"Mainly quick pickpocketing, no big heists, I get enough to get by." Jess explains, making it up as she goes along.

"Biggest take?" Alex asks, out of curiosity.

"Doesn't matter, it's as insignificant as a speck of dust compared to this." Jess says, shaking off these questions.

"Mine is $1,750." Alex explains, then he realises something. He looks around the room for something. "Have you checked this room?"

"For bugs? It's clean." She answers.

"We're in a casino hotel room, of course it's bugged." Alex remarks. "That's what casino's do. They analyse all sorts of data and things to figure out how to make people spend more money at the tables."

"I expected that sort of information to come from Matt." Jess replies, moving closer to the couch.

"I'm not stupid, I'm not smart like him but… I know about what I do." Alex answers.

"Smart people don't get caught." Jess adds.

"Is it smart to join me?" Alex continues.

"I have 1.8 million reasons why it's the perfect choice." Jess adds.

"Then how did you find me in the first place? I'm guessing it's that video on the Internet." Alex answers to himself.

"I'm ambitious, willing to do anything to get the score. I thought that we share the same qualities, plus I guessed you had connections."

"Well, then you're not like every single person I've met." Alex answers. "I thought that once, but I know now that everyone starts from square one, even me. Everyone that thinks otherwise is with me now doing this heist."

"And also it doesn't matter they bug the place, they won't share any of this with the police or anyone. Anyone with the amounts of money that are around here have a high probability of coming from… other places." Alex explains further. "So, breakfast, shall we get some?"

"Yes, should I get Tyson up?" Jess asks, already heading towards the corridor leading to the bedrooms.

"If you want." Alex says, looking out over the view and admiring it's beauty with the grand old casino centre stage.

"Alex." Jess shouts. "He's not here."

"Then he must already be at the casino." Alex answers as Jess comes running back to Alex.

"For breakfast?" Jess asks.

"No, he's probably at a bar or at the tables." Alex answers. "We have to check the money, how much would he have taken or could have spent? All of it. How much would he spend? All of it." Alex says whilst pacing quickly, figuring out the situation out loud. "We have to find him quickly, let's go to the casino now."

Alex is very worried, not nervous, but worried that all of the takings have just disappeared in a flash; in an ill placed bet on some obscure race, in one hand of poker or in one spin of the roulette table.

"Quickly." Alex urges as he runs to the door and unlocks it with his key card placed inside his pocket so he can go back in again. He sprints down the hallway past the cleaners and the waiters bringing similarly overpriced room service. Jess tries to catch up to him down the hallway as Alex veers right towards the elevators, which he tears straight past and goes straight into the stairs. Jess tries to follow, even with her level fitness she does not have the raw ability to move up or down as quickly as the raccoon that is streaking ahead of her. She is almost embarrassed that he's waiting for her down the bottom of the stairs at the ground floor. When they open the door, they head for one of the two staircases at either side of the main lobby that lead to the tunnel and therefore the casino itself. Whereas Jess tries to move down twice at a time, Alex takes complete disregard for the stairs and uses the railing to slide down, again putting him ahead of Jess.

Once again, he let's her catch up as they run along the brightly lit tunnel before they reach the main set of stairs on the other side, which Alex takes the normal way except much faster again before arriving at the casino lobby which has a restaurant near by which Alex checks and find him slumped over the bar, either in sleep or unconsciousness, perhaps both. Alex runs over to the bar ahead of Jess to wake him up.

"I'm sorry were closed." The bartender says as she cleans up the place from the previous nights ruckus.

"No, this is my friend. How long has he been here?" Alex asks leaning down to look at his passed out face.

"He was here when I started my shift at 6." She answers.

"Do you have his tab or a record of what he ordered?" Jess asks.

"Here are the receipts from last night." The bartender says, handing over several merchant copy receipts impaled on the black metal spike. "If he paid by card, then it'll be on there."

"He would have paid cash, thanks for your help." Alex answers. The bartender gets back to cleaning the bar. Alex puts the back of his hand near Tyson's nose to check if he's breathing, which he is thankfully.

"Hey, wake up." Alex asks, clicking his fingers in front of his ear. Tyson is still passed out.

"I'll call an ambulance." Jess says.

"Ambulance won't help, he's not that drunk. He's just sleeping very deeply." Alex replies. "He needs time."

"Speaking from experience?" Jess asks.

"Don't drink." Alex comments. "Help me move him."

Alex puts Tyson's left arm around his shoulder.

"Please." Alex says, not yet taking the large weight of the tiger. Jess does what he asks and together they lift him off the bar and the barstool. It's a difficult task to drag him along together so they don't lose grip on him and keep him upright. Some guests are more struck about this sight than others, some are regular customers have seen stranger things. Lucky for him the lifts go to the tunnel level and the 4 levels of basement car parks level below, so a 6-storey climb isn't on the menu this morning. They continue along the hallway until they reach their door, which Alex opens with the key card, before moving sideways into the hotel room and finally lying him down on the couch.

"He needs to wake up in his own time." Alex explains.

"Do you do this to all your drunk friends?" Jess asks.

"Yes, because I only have one and you're looking at him right now. Come on, let's go and eat something." Alex says, completely fine with leaving him on the couch, he knows he'll wake up before he comes back. He's seen this happen with other around his age in youth hostels, how they come back so inebriated that they wreaked of vomit. Their breath was so full of alcohol that if a sober person tried to take a breathalyser test they'd fail due to all of the alcohol in the air. He knew some people who spent more on alcohol than on their accommodation, so he knows what happens in a whole variety of situations. This is a mild case. It also gave him enough ammunition to stay away from drinking, as well as the fact it would destroy his physical capabilities and would drain what little money he could get.

After helping themselves to an all you can eat buffet of everything one could reasonably offer in a breakfast setting. They return to the apartment, with Alex's prediction of Tyson regaining his consciousness coming true, albeit very hung-over. Tyson groans at the pain inside his head, it can be heard from outside the apartment.

"Are you okay?" Alex asks, hoping that it's not him in some sort of other pain. Jess runs over to the couch to confront Tyson.

"Breathe! Just, breathe." She commands.

"Okay! Okay!" Tyson says, the noise is just too much right now, like every sound is a massive blow inflicted on him.

"What happened last night?" Jess asks.

"I, I, I…was sleeping." Tyson answers nervously, hoping they haven't found out about his goings on last night.

"We found you drunk at the bar this morning, what were you really doing last night?" She asks a bit forcefully, her interrogation training and skills subconsciously kicking in.

"You won't like it!" Tyson yells, on the verge of sobbing. "I lost."

"How much?" Alex asks, more kindly than Jess.

"Chill, please. It's too noisy." Tyson says randomly.

"What happened last night?!" Jess asks.

"Okay, okay." Tyson exclaims in desperation to prevent harsher questioning. He then contorts his face, trying to remember anything from last night. "There was… was… oh what was his name?... Ah! I can't remember! But he was great, you know, (they don't know) and we kept buying each other drinks and… that's it, I don't know what happens next."

"Did you bet at the casino?" Jess interrogates.

"How would I know, my head is ringingggaaahhhhh!" Tyson exclaims.

"Memory loss." Alex notes to himself before turning to Jess. "Where did you put the money?"

"There's a safe in my room." Jess says. "I'll go check it now."

"No! Pleeeeease don't!" Tyson begs with his slurred speech continuing.

"Hang in there, it's going to be fine." Alex comforts as he looks around the room for one of the many possible hangover 'cures'. Even in this day and age, where doctors have cured AIDS and perfected cancer treatment with survival rates for all cancers over 90%, they still haven't yet found a cure for a hangover that is effective. What he looks and finds is instant coffee, he takes a sachet and finds a kettle which he fills and turns on, boiling the water as it pours out of the spout, and mixes the coffee powder in a cup. He takes this quickly made concoction and brings it over to Tyson without spilling a drop.

"Drink this." Alex commands, making sure Tyson grasps the cup before he lets go. Tyson takes a sip before downing the whole thing before Jess comes back with the news.

"Okay, want to hear the good news?" Jess asks.

"Does such a thing exist in this situation?" Alex asks rhetorically.

"Not all of the money was used." Jess answers.

"How much was used then?" Alex asks, preparing for a number infinitesimally close to 1.8 million.

"Almost half a million, about £450,000 on my count." Jess answers.

"It's better than what I was expecting." Alex replies, slightly relieved.

"That's putting it kindly." Jess comments. "What should we do now?"

Alex has a brief few seconds where he thinks over the options.

"I'm going to find out what happened last night."


	14. Boredom

**Chapter 14 – Boredom**

**Constanta, Romania. 7:57am, 5****th**** November 2032.**

"Matt, I'm at the casino, I need you to help me around the place, help me find out where they keep the security camera footage." Alex asks, already moving down to the hallway to the elevator.

"Hold on a sec." Matt says, not ready to do what Alex wants. "Okay, just give me a minute."

He makes his way down to the ground floor and finds the holographic map of the complex and begins to interact with it, homing in to the main gaming area. It's not marked on the map, but it has to be nearby. He checks the basement level on the map and finds an area marked off as 'Services', he knows that this is where it must be.

"Okay, there's a service area where they store the data, I can't access it from here so it must be on a computer not attached to any network. Their systems are closed, which means I need an uplink plugged into their servers if you want me to get access to their security cameras." Matt explains.

"Okay, I'll call back if I need anything else." Alex replies before hanging up and replacing his phone back into his pocket.

Alex moves towards the stairs down to the brightly lit underground tunnel where he sees a set of double doors locked by a key card entrance. He remembers the place and moves on into the main casino area, open 24 hours but at this morning hour it's more like it's closed. Small robots move around the floor vacuuming all the debris before they begin clean the carpet floor, ready for the next night. Most tables are empty and not operational, only 20% of tables are open of which a fraction are being used. That makes it harder for Alex to find an adequately sized person.

He's planning to get in disguise by using an outfit from the casino personnel: A white button up business shirt with a yellow, red and dark blue coloured vest and black trousers. Some vests have red and use the other colours as patterning, others are yellow and have red and dark blue patterning and some are dark blue with red and yellow patterning. The patterning itself is an embroided outline of the front of the casino set in the bottom right of the vest itself. Alex looks for a similarly sized employee to use, but his attention is quickly drawn to a much safer alternative. He spots the employee area and walks past the door casually, noting the security, which is the same as on the service door. Alex stands further away just to not arouse suspicion as he sees one of the employees move off to the break room. He heads towards the same room as the employee from the other side. The employee swipes his card and opens the door to get inside; Alex follows directly behind so he doesn't touch the door. Once inside, the adrenaline naturally kicks in and he knows he has the advantage of stealth and silence. It takes under 5 seconds for him to takes the keycard off the employee, including the chain that it was attached to on his pants.

Next, he ventures around until he finds the locker room, containing spare articles of clothing in case a customer get angry and spills their expensive cocktail over them. Alex flicks through the clothes until he finds some that are his size before moving to the bathroom to get changed. Once fitted out in his disguise, wearing his normal clothing underneath, he moves back into the public area. He quickly moves back towards the service area with his hand in his trouser pocket ready to swipe the card and continue on. He swipes away and waits for access to be granted, which it is after 2 seconds of analysis. He moves inside and looks for the surveillance room, where all of the files from the security cameras and bugs are kept. Alex finds a room with four server towers inside by looking through the tiny porthole window from the outside. Alex opens the door and moves inside, shutting the door quietly before getting surprised at the nature of this room. This room is essentially trapped between two sets of fans. One set blows up from beneath the floor and the roof is fitted with powerful extractor fans to recirculate and cool the air down again. As a result, there is a powerful gust that blows at Alex's feet which makes the trouser legs batter against his ankles.

This is where Matt would have helped out tremendously, Alex thinks, too bad he doesn't have an uplink on hand; it would have been so much easier if he were here with him in Romania. Alex doesn't know his way around a server room, or where to start. What he does see behind all of the towers is a computer desktop with six screens in a 3 by 2 rectangle, used to review the security footage from a closed source. Alex sits down on the plain metal chair and looks for a mouse or track pad but there are none, which means it's the type on control he likes the least, gesture control. He waves his hand in front of the screen which wakes up the computer from it's slumber, it asks for ID, to which Alex provides the keycard for examination. It takes more than 5 seconds to verify the ID, a time Alex thinks is a bit too long, but nevertheless, he's into the security cameras. They load up the current view as they are filming presently, however, Alex pinches his fingers on his left hand and moves it to the left, turning back the clock on the footage shown.

He knows roughly when Tyson would have arrived at the casino, so he begins there by looking around at the tables for any sight of him. Then he realises that Tyson couldn't have snuck out with the money whilst Jess was still awake, so Alex moves the time forwards another half an hour. After more scanning, He catches a glimpse of tiger with his arms wrapped around a similarly buff gorilla in a well-tailored suit, both holding cocktails of some types. Alex doesn't know which cocktail it would be, it's hard to tell on 8K resolution monitors. He sees them saunter over towards a set of double doors, separated now, and the gorilla asks the attendant at the door to let them in. There is no sign on the front door, but he can guess it's a high rollers area, the area under the sea. After some explaining, they step inside. Alex swipes away at the screens, trying to find them on another camera that has them in view. It takes him 10 seconds to find out that there are no security camera in the high rollers area, further evidence that maybe there are things which people don't want to know about.

Satisfied that he knows what happens after they go out of view, he shuts down the computer and retracts the ID card from the computer before leaving his seat. He feels the rush of air come from underneath him like before as he approaches the door. He leaves the room as calmly as he came into it, heading back to the hotel room. He saunters down the hallway, and readies his key card to enter.

"Room service." Alex says cheekily.

"Not now."

It's not a voice he recognises. Alex was ready to swipe away but now his card just waits next to the scanner. He thinks quickly about what to do, as well as keeping calm.

"My mistake sir." Alex replies, looking back down the hallway for the stairs. He moves quickly towards the stairs and goes up one level and heads to the room directly above theirs. Alex knocks on the door.

"Room service."

"I didn't order anything." A middle aged, Middle Eastern accent replies.

"The room below has offered to pay for anything you order, as an apology for the noise." Alex replies.

"I didn't hear anything." He replies.

"They insisted that all the adjacent rooms be compensated." Alex insists.

"Fine, come inside and take my order."

"Alex takes out the employee's key card and swipes it in the door's scanner. Once again, it takes a few seconds before it accepts his card and unlocks the door, a longer time that usual.

"Sorry to disturb you." Alex apologies as he shuts the door behind him.

"It's okay." A brown furred ferret replies with an impressively sculpted beard that is uniformly a centimetre thick around all parts of the face. Dressed in a white buttons up shirt with the first three top buttons undone to expose his chest fur and a pair of black trousers, the same colour as the one's Alex has on but noticeably finer. "Now, what do you recommend I order?"

Alex hasn't read the room service menu, he hasn't had the time to do so yet. As a result, he tries to control his nerves, a slip into nervousness and he's gone.

"There are some specials on at the moment." Alex begins. "The first is a pan fried snapped infused with foie gras and topped with a red wine jus. And the next is a bit more expensive, a scallop stuffed with Local caviar and Sicilian truffles."

"And how much would these items cost?"

"It doesn't matter, they are free." Alex replies. "So, if you could please indicate your preference."

"Your offer is tempting, but I have just had breakfast, so no thank you." He replies.

"Nothing at all?" Alex asks, trying to think of another way to move the ferret out of his way so he can get to the balcony unseen.

"That's right."

Alex moves closer to the sliding glass door that allows access to the balcony.

"Would you like some fresh air?" Alex asks.

"It's too cold."

"I'll prove it." Alex says, opening up the balcony door and standing outside in the cold with a cool sea breeze lapping into his face.

"Please leave." The ferret insists, getting slightly agitated.

Alex panics, he has no other option but to fling himself over the balcony and down onto the balcony below, where he sees the situation inside his own apartment.

Four black suited and black gloved wolves standing around the couch at all four corners, staring inside towards the two gang members sitting on the couch looking quiet and content like students in a classroom, both facing forwards, staring out into the distance, right through Alex. He looks at them quickly, unarmed on the face of it, then decides how to enter. There is only one way to enter, he knocks. This attracts the attention of the four intruders who turn their heads. The closest one moves towards the door, putting one hand inside his jacket pocket, which makes Alex slightly nervous. He unlocks the door and slides it open, still with one hand inside his jacket pocket. Alex steps inside, unsure if they can see him or even know if he's here. Then he quickly realises no one would open the door for no one, especially if they can see that there's no one.

"He's here." He says to someone via a wire.

Alex slowly walks around the room until he's in line with the couch, just to be in the right position to look around the room. He can hear a set of footsteps walking along from the bedroom, slowly towards the main room and guess who he sees.

"Morning." Jeremy casually says wearing a much pricier suit with a royal blue tie which by itself is worth more than the suits of his henchmen combined. "I love to disturb you at this hour, wherever you are."

_He's here? In my hotel room?!_

"Enjoying the views?" He asks rhetorically. "I know you are, these rooms are more than a thousand euros a night, you'd expect something like that." He points out to the vista including the casino.

"So, um. I'm just going to sit down here." He says, sitting on the top of the couch in between the unmoved Jess and the more intimidated Tyson. "…Until you appear so I can talk you face to face with some… important, business matters. Well, when I say business matters it's really me having fun while I watch you, to see how to work under enormous pressure. Surely you must have realised that I could have easily stolen all your money within minutes of your arrival, but, what satisfaction would that have given me… that's gives me no pleasure.

The skunk takes a look around the room, hoping for a well-timed entrance from the raccoon, before strolling around while he fills in the time.

"There's a poker tournament tonight, buy-in is 2 million euros, which is almost precisely the amount you have left in pounds. Coincidence? Well, you can choose whatever you want to believe. You will play at this poker game tonight and at least have a chance of winning something instead of the certainty of the disappearance of your money if you don't. I won't be playing, that would be unfair for you. So, I have a stand in which your… disproportionately build friend of yours acquainted with last night. He's quite good, best poker player I could buy. He gets 20% of whatever he wins as payment. His name's Lawrence Fischer and he's got fast fingers as well, you should see him do that trick with the poker chip; he can make that thing move across his hand quicker than I thought possible. And it's not just the speed, it's the nonchalant and careless way he does it. It's like he's just doing it because he's bored, exactly the reason why I am here."

"I'm bored. I thought this would be hard but this was easier than buying a cup of coffee. I have more wealth and power than I know what to do with, all before the age of 24. And don't get me started on the police, because they have not done a single thing that got them anywhere near me because I am above them. They say that the law is above no one; I say it's not discovered the heights that I'm at. You should listen now because this is the part that concerns you if you are here. Stealing, being a master thief, that's just a hobby now, a tradition, a past time. I do that for fun. That money you 'stole' from me, that's a drop in the ocean. I would set the buy in higher if not for your poor souls…"

Alex appears in sight, having become internally incensed at how much Jeremy thinks he has him in his palm.

"You think I'm already finished?" Alex retorts back, trying to contain himself.

"No, far from it. In fact, I hope for the opposite." Jeremy replies. "It's just…"

Alex's phone rings.

"Answer it." Jeremy insists. Alex looks at Jeremy puzzlingly once, then again just as he pulls out his phone before answering it.

"Oh, put it on speaker." Jeremy adds. Alex obliges.

"Hello."

"Hey, I just wanted to know if you found out what happened last night with the money." Matt replies.

"Um, we've lost… about half a million pounds last night." Alex replies disappointingly.

"What? You didn't bet at the casino did you?" Matt asks.

"I don't know." Alex responds despairingly. "It was late, how was I supposed to remember what I did last night?"

"Alex, I know that's a lie. That's not something you'd do." Matt insists.

"I'm sorry." Alex apologises under the presence of the skunk.

"It's fine, it's a little setback." Matt tries to rationalise the situation. "I called you to talk about some possible options I spent all night researching. The simple answer is that we need more people; it's the only way we can do this, and guess where I've found it. You said there was something called, um, Thiefnet, a while ago. Well, there's a new sort of system like that but it's different, I won't go into the specifics, but it's incredible. I was one there for less than a minute before I was flooded with requests. I have more than 150 people wanting to work for you."

Alex is taken back by such words, but he can't justify in his own mind why anyone would want to work with him. Do people really believe that he's really got as much potential as Antonio believes?

"Um, what do you want me to say to that?" Alex asks, not because he's flattered but because he's really not sure what he's meant to say.

"Say that you need time to look over it." Matt replies as an email comes through on his phone. "It has the profiles of everyone that's contacted me, we only need about 3 more so don't get carried away. I'll explain it later on a secure connection. Okay, I'll see you later."

"Bye." Alex responds before hanging up.

"Is that a heist I hear you planning? Planning to steal something from the casino? Casino heists are too basic, too simple. I could bleed this place dry within a week, but that would deprive me of a nice place to stay. Well, I wish you luck." Jeremy says as he nears the front door.

"Oh and the site your friend found is just Thiefnet V9.1. I had it remade so I could find someone that could challenge me, just to shake things up a bit; but that time hasn't come yet. Until next time." Jeremy farewells as he is followed by the four henchmen out of the hotel room.


	15. Preperation

**Chapter 15 – Preparation**

**Constanta, Romania. 2:14pm, 5****th**** November 2032.**

Alex has no choice but to accept his very onerous terms of a poker tournament. It was either definitely losing the money tonight or losing the money when he had a chance of winning. He figured that there was nothing to lose. Alex knows how to play poker, but he's never played for real money, money that was very precious to him when he was younger and is still precious now. The pile of money in the hotel safe is something he doesn't want to give up so easily and so helplessly, the thought of fighting the henchmen or taking out Jeremy right then and there never crossed his mind such was his state of paralysis at seeing the blatant intrusion into the hotel room. In any case, Alex doesn't like having to fight because it's way too confrontational, he'd rather do everything cleanly with no fights, no takedowns and no murder; death is not an option, either for him or anyone he faces.

He spent the rest of the morning trying to get to grips with the game he will be playing later tonight thanks to an app he got on his phone as well as watching a real poker tournament on TV, calculating if they are bluffing or not. His success rate was about equal to chance. He also played with Tyson, but he won too easily. He then played with Jess, but found out how difficult it was to read her. Her face was like a brick wall, unchanged whether she had a straight flush or nothing at all. She used this to her advantage and managed to win all of the £10,000 which they used as the pool for practice. It would take only 20 minutes for Jess to bleed him of the money, playing him perfectly by sucking him in when the right hand came to fruition.

"5th time in a row." Jess remarks, sweeping the 100 £100 notes towards her.

"It's not working." Alex replies in frustration.

"What isn't working?" Jess asks.

"I think I have good cards and then I suddenly get destroyed." Alex moans.

"Think about it this way, screw what cards you have in your hand, make them believe whatever cards you want." Jess says.

"How?" Alex asks like he's missed out on something so obvious that it should be staring him in the face. She takes a pile of 7 random cards from the pile and gives him two and puts the other 5 face up on the floor, a 5 of diamonds, a 7 of hearts, a jack of diamonds, a three of diamonds and a 10 of spades, as in a real scenario of poker.

"Sell be those cards without showing me." She commands.

She watches Alex look at his cards and waits 10 seconds before deciding on her price.

"I fold." Jess says.

"You're just being safe." Alex says. "There's three diamonds on the floor, if I have 2 diamonds in my hand then I have a flush, you're just not wanting to take the risk."

"The probability of you having a flush is… less than 5 percent." She calculates.

"What? You're smart as well?" Alex exclaims in exasperation, his practice could not get any harder. "You're just like my sister."

"You have a sister?" She asks, not as emotionally charged as Alex. She missed that part on the dossier. Instantly a whole new range of possibilities opens up for her: a new source of information, a contact, leverage…

"Yeah, but she's not into this sorta stuff." Alex explains. "We're twins, but different."

"Did she… ever try…?" Jess says, trying to get Alex into saying words that she wants to hear.

"No, never. She has the skills though, and the brains on top of that. She's a bit like you except without the… flat, unchanged expression on your face all the time. It's annoying when I have to play poker against you." Alex explains.

"What does she do?" She asks.

"University, at Oxford. I think of it like, if we swapped our desires with our skills, then it would all work out." Alex theorises.

"Like your smart enough to go to Oxford." Jess retorts. She gets up from the prone position on the floor and heads towards the bathroom.

"If stealing was a subject I could pass." Alex replies before she's gone.

Charlotte reaches into her pocket and gets her phones and looks up the appropriate hidden contact on her phone. She waits until the bathroom door is locked before calling.

"Jarman's gardening."

"I need to order a RXC100." Charlotte answers.

"One moment please."

She waits with time running out to convey the information she needs to say without being suspicious.

"Slade."

"Listen, he has a sister who's at Oxford. Use her to get information, get leverage, it has to be his weakness." Charlotte whispers quickly and quietly.

"She's not the target Slade. Do you have any more info you want to share?"

"Yes, there's a poker tournament at this hotel. Le Paradox is having someone acting on his behalf named Lawrence Fischer who will be there as well. Cooper will be playing as well. You can get them both there if you send a team here to arrest them." She explains.

"We'll take it under consideration."

"Hey, wait!" She pleads. The bureaucracy machine keeps on ticking effortlessly. It's the worst part about this new transition, requests are not approved within an instant. It was a much easier time being a kid, adult responsibility and all that. Now she doesn't even know if this job is going be over within 24 hours or if it will continue ad infinitum. She gets out of the bathroom and returns to see Alex playing against himself, dealing 5 other hands apart from himself and even betting on their behalf despite not seeing their cards. He turns over the 5th card in the centre and looks at his own hand before placing 5 notes into the pot and doing the same with the other 5 hands. He turns the hands over until he reaches the fourth hand, to which he reacts with frustration.

"Can't even beat yourself?" She jokes.

"No, and also don't try and surprise me by sneaking up on me, it doesn't work." Alex replies. At that moment, Alex decides to check his phone messages in case Matt has sent him any of those profiles that he talked about earlier. He finds that there are exactly 15 that were sent to him. Alex feels like he's working in HR for a brief second as he sees the first few profiles which have a standardised layout with their name at the top, physical profile, previous jobs and experience, skills along with a picture and a small sentence on the bottom on why they want to work with him; making the entire form as civilised and organised as trying to be recruited by a bank.

"I'm taking a break from losing." Alex says as he gets up and stares into his phone, reading the contents of the messages. He moves into one of the actual bedrooms and closes the door, from the lack of items strewn around the place, he takes a guess that this is Jess' room. He scrolls through the digital documents. He finds that everyone are lone thieves who all rely on different things. Mostly technology, some through disguise but none seem to have done anything big. Every theft, whether the take was over a million or less than a thousand, seems to be done on a whim, with little or no planning in a short amount of time. For example, one theft labelled as 'pharamceuticals storage facility - $15,000', was probably planned and executed within 5 minutes. There's no way that someone would just decide that they needed some medication that they would just waltz into a secure laboratory and relieve them of their products. Considering this profile is one for someone that's good with computers, he guesses that the bank account has been drained.

It's not the type of accomplice that Alex wants at the moment, in fact, he doesn't want anyone else. All these people throwing themselves at him in the hope of being near to him just don't live up to what he pictures as a thief, it seems closer to being a celebrity. He then goes through each one quickly, a very large proportion of which are computer technicians. It's not that he didn't know about the current state of affairs in crime where the bulk of thefts are in cyberspace, all the aspiring thief needs these days is a computer, a Wi-Fi connection and some programming knowledge. People don't have to even go outside to steal things anymore, it's one of the big pluses of this set up, the anonymity gained from not having to physically be present at the scene of the crime is a huge bonus. Alex knows that what he does is an antiquated art, much like the artworks he's planning to steal in a few weeks, very rare and each one different. He goes through the entire pile of requests, not finding anyone that he would want to work with. Sure there is no computer technician in this room but his computer genius is only a call away, the only one he wants to work with.

**4:15pm**

After having eaten he was soundly beaten, albeit in a slower amount of time because Tyson had joined in after hours at the hotel gym. It is clear to Alex that Jess is definitely not getting constantly good cards but also is somehow making those cards better than even the best of hands received by either opponent. Jess would put down a confident bet of £2000 which would make Alex and Tyson fold in quick succession, and even when Alex had the guts to continue on, he'd always lose. Alex would try and stare into her face for a tell, the sign that a player is bluffing, but he could never find it whereas Jess read Alex like a children's picture book.

"Please, just say how you do win all the time." Alex complains after having lost to a three of a kind, thrusting his face up cards into the floor in frustration.

"I said last time, you look at someone and read them. For me it's just natural." Jess repeats, hiding the fact that she's been trained in psychological manipulation and body language recognition.

"Can't you explain at least a tiny bit or that £1 million is probably going out of the door faster than Le Paradox can take it." Alex pleads.

"Look at me, try and notice what I'm doing, look at all the tiny things: pupil dilation, if someone touches their head, if they look down at their cards, a tiny smirk or something, there's loads of things can be seen. While you are only trying to concentrate on your own cards and how to beat me, you're not controlling yourself. Your only focus is on how to beat me but you forget about your own expressions. I don't have a flat expression because I'm gruff or pessimistic but because it doesn't tell anyone anything about what I'm thinking." Jess explains.

"And what are you thinking?" Alex asks as he shifts his cross-legged position on the floor.

"I'm thinking that your…" Jess begins to explain, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door. They wait for a call out from the hotel staff they suspect is on the other side.

"I'll check." Alex says quietly, standing up to check who's at the door although none of them can see that, they can only hear his voice. Alex turns on a small monitor next to the front door to get the picture from the camera mounted inside the door which allows people to see who's outside. This disturbance is from 3 suit wearing persons who Alex briefly thinks are Jeremy's henchmen, returning to give some sort of punishment, but they are silent until Alex replies to them.

"I'll be a minute." Alex replies, in reality he's waiting to reappear so he doesn't freak them out.

"We will wait."

Once he's checked himself, he opens the door for his 3 guests stand outside.

"Mr. Cooper. It is an honour to finally meet you despite our previous attempts." An antelope says in a Germanic accent with his neck held high with perfect posture, he seems a very correct person.

"What previous attempts? Who are you?" Alex asks, but they don't acknowledge that reply.

"Do you have it?" He asks.

"I don't know what you want or who you are so you…" Alex says, gradually escalating his voice and becoming more temperamental.

"The cane Mr. Cooper, the cane." He answers. "We need to talk, outside. And please hurry."

Alex takes a step back and looks over to the corner where the cane is leaning up against the wall before double taking back at the three unknown persons.

"Not until I know that this isn't an ambush." Alex refuses.

"There is no time for arguing, we have to hurry."

"Why are you here then? Tell me or I won't go." Alex refuses once again. The two other assistants are instructed via a hand signal to move into the apartment to drag Alex away forcefully. Alex backs away as Tyson and Jess get up, sensing that they are in danger too. Alex moves behind them to grab his cane, this causes a brief stand off between the two 'lesser' groups. One of the lackeys makes the first move and tries to overpower the seemingly weaker of the two in Jess. She side steps to the right and kicks him in the back of the knee, bending the knee to make him lose balance, bringing him to the ground. Next, with Tyson stationary from the sight of such a quick disarmament, she blocks a punch headed towards Tyson who wouldn't have dodged it in time. The guard's fist is sent downward by her arm thrust downwards onto his forearm before pushing him backwards over the couch. Tyson steps back, he doesn't really need to do any thing here. She returns to the first guard who she kicks in the chest to force him down again.

With Jess occupied with the other guard. Tyson sees an opportunity to join in as the other guard gets up from being flung on the couch. The guard tries to punch Tyson and succeeds, Tyson couldn't dodge his hulking body fast enough which allows the other guard to land a second blow that didn't really to much damage. Tyson tries to swing his huge arm for a right hook but that's dodged way too easily before he's jabbed in the stomach which partially winds him. Tyson puts up his arms to block as the other guard tries to punch around them. Tyson then hears a loud crack from right in front of him, causing the guard to moan in pain. Tyson drops his arms and sees Alex lowering his cane and putting it back into his right hand, holding it almost parallel to the ground. Alex had come up from behind and swing his cane with the back of the hook right into the guards lower back after doing what he does best. Alex takes out a wallet from his pocket and inspects it more closely and figures out what he might be here for.

"You're Arnold Herrman, correct?" Alex begins, reading off a bank card.

"That's my wallet." He realises in surprise, but then again he should know better.

"You work for a Swiss bank in Zurich." Alex continues. But Arnold wants his wallet back, he storms forward to get it back.

"Show some respect Mr. Cooper. Hand it bank!" He demands.

"I think I know why you are here." Alex says, placing the wallet back inside the banker's jacket pocket which was where he found it.

"Where are you going?" Jess asks.

"Zurich, so make sure that you take the money with you when you leave."

"Why don't you take the money? You're going to a bank right?" Jess asks.

"You take it, use it to survive. I have to this."

Jess moves towards the front door, followed by Tyson, in anticipation of following him. The two guards get up gingerly and try to hide their pain as they escort Arnold and Alex out of the room.

"Only Mr. Cooper will be required, thank you." He warns, which causes the two of them to stop. Alex walks out of the apartment with the cane clutched in his right hand with two in front of him, Arnold and an assistant with the last one following behind. They go into the elevator and move themselves such that Alex is behind them all, like they have to protect his life, like they are now his bodyguards.

They all stand motionless, facing the front of the elevator except for Alex who looks at the backs of their heads and their suits. Once they have gotten to the basement floor, Alex sees that there is a car waiting for him, waiting just outside the elevator, with another person wearing the same suit holding the door open. They usher him forward towards the car, which Alex gets into followed by one of the guards on the left and the other on the right, sandwiching him in the centre. The old antelope gets into the front passenger seat and they drive off, heading towards the exit. It's only once they are out of the building that they begin talking.

"Mr. Cooper. For security reasons, we couldn't say anything in that place as everything is recorded, we couldn't take that chance. But I can sense that you didn't realise that at the time so you became frustrated" He begins as the car swings onto a coastal road along the sea. "I am here to personally greet you to inform you that you have come into the possession of a Swiss bank account bequeathed in your name."

"My dad isn't dead." Alex says. "He's in prison."

"Under the terms of the agreement, in the unlikely event of incarceration leading to a sentence greater than the life expectancy of the current account holder, it shall be passed onto the next of kin which in your special case, includes a unique set of criteria." He explains. "First, you must be 18 or older, the usual; Secondly, you must display an interest in upholding your families tradition and the third is a test to be administered at the bank."

"I was never told about this account by my father." Alex insists.

"Your family has been dealing with us for nearly a century, ever since the end of the second world war. You are our most valuable customer." He explains.

"What's inside?" Alex asks. The proceeds from nearly 100 years of thefts.

"The actual amount is unquantifiable, it is impossible to accurately value the contents of your account because many of them are… unique."

"Do you have an estimate?" Alex asks.

"No, it would be foolish to estimate it's value."

"So where are you taking me?"

"To the airport…" Arnold says. "We leave immediately."

"Okay, do you think there are diamonds allocated to me?" Alex asks, having a brainwave.

"We do not keep an exact manifest of the contents of your deposit due to the nature of these dealings but I think I can remember him talking about diamonds, but I don't know how big or how many there are. Only the account holder can open the account." He explains as Alex dials in a number into his phone before waiting for an answer.

"What are you doing?" Arnold asks.

"Liquidating assets."

Alex waits until the recipient of this phone call is free.

"Alex, what do you need?" Matt asks.

"Are you set up?" Alex asks.

"Not quite, it's impossible to buy into the market here." Matt says.

"I was going to say are you interested in some diamonds?" Alex asks.

"Do you have them with you?" Matt asks. "What size?"

"Meet me in Switzerland and I'll hand them off to you." Alex instructs.

"What time?"

"Late, I don't know when." Alex answers.

"Is this about a Swiss bank account?"

One of the bodyguards overhears this conversation as he is sitting right next to him and snatches the phone off him and ends the call before giving it back.

"The less people that know, the better." He instructs, still bitter from having taken a pounding.

Alex gets his phone back, a wise decision for the bodyguard as Alex was already eying what to pinch off him as punishment which is probably the watch on his wrist, obviously Swiss made.


	16. The Cooper Vault?

**Chapter 16 – The Cooper Vault?**

**Zurich, Switzerland. 7:46pm, 5****th**** November 2032.**

"Why did you abandon them?" Erin accuses. Alex is trying to focus on what she's saying; it's all a fuzzy and blurry conversation.

"How much do you value them? Is it more than what it's inside the safe?"

"Wha…no. I didn't leave them." Alex defends himself as he lies on the ground.

"Why did you abandon them, abandon them, abandon them…" Erin says, saying the last part like a broken record player except growing in loudness and fuzziness as a loud roar builds up until it becomes painful. The world shakes…

…and Alex wakes up, thrusting himself forward to escape the nightmare, breathing quickly, and sees the inside of the private jet he had been flying in. The sumptuous leather of his seat that had cradled him for the brief catch-up of sleep that he managed to get on the journey was something he definitely noticed, along with the array of screens and other luxury appointments he did not get enough time to look at. The plane has just touched down onto the runway with the engines going into reverse thrust to slow the plane down to a speed where it can taxi safely into it's small hangar. As soon as the plane stops, the plane's main door opens to let out the 4 passengers to go to another waiting car waiting right next to the front of the plane. It's a short drive to the bank itself, a small building on the outside, only a few stories tall but then again this is not a major bank. It's a private bank only catering to the wealthy; the minimum amount needed to set up an account is 1 million Swiss francs.

They enter into the building as soon as the car stops; the private bankers really want this to be finished as soon as possible. Alex looks out of place with his outfit compared to the suits around him. There are only a few extra people in the building but most of them are security personnel hired for this event. The staff had stayed up too, knowing that their best customer was going to arrive. They walk down a set of stairs to the vault level where a security guard sits outside. He gets up and together with the banker, swipe their keycards simultaneously to unlock the sealed vault door where all of the safety deposit boxes are stored. Alex was expecting something… more than just several deposit boxes.

"Is this it?" Alex asks to the banker as he looks around at the interior of the vault.

"We are not allowed inside with you, we can only stand outside the vault."

"Which deposit box is mine?" Alex asks.

"This is the test." The banker explains. "Like I said earlier."

Alex looks around at all of the boxes that line the walls of the interior, each with a number on the front. Alex thinks through his mind which 3-digit number would be his deposit box. Each despot box itself is only the size of a shoebox that makes Alex wonder if it's the only box that they have for him. After 30 seconds of searching, he finds the one box that is different from the others; the numbering is in an ever so slightly different font. #937 is the answer.

"Do you have the key to box number 937?" Alex asks.

"We have no key for that box." Arnold answers, this frustrates Alex even more. He stares at the box, it's exactly the same shape as the others with only the font for the numbering being different. Eventually, he tries to force it open. He pushes in on it, and realises that the box itself is loose. He pushes it further into the wall before he hears a click. He can hear the hissing of pneumatic arms moving as he sees a portion of the deposit boxes, the one's positioned in the centre opposite the vault door, move backwards and then sideways into the wall, revealing a hidden area. A dark, and empty area with only one thing at the end which catches Alex's attention, another safe that is brightly lit. Alex turns around and sees a black curtain has been dropped over the open vault door to obscure the view. He walks forward slowly, down the two concrete steps and onto a short plateau the same width as the vault itself, about 7 metres wide and only 3 metres long before the platform simply drops off. Alex can't see if there is a bottom to the pit.

The hidden doorway retracts back into it's position, leaving Alex trapped inside the dark room. Once the door is shut, a single red laser shoots out from the far end towards the platform Alex stands on. It's the only light source apart from the single light source shooting down to illuminate the next safe door. Alex waits for something else to happen, something that could get him across the 15-metre gap to the other side.

"Okay… think." Alex says to himself, hoping he can regurgitate a passage from the Thievius Raccoonus that would help him. Wall running is out of the question; the gap between the sides is too wide. There is nothing attached to the wall or the roof to hook the cane to. The single laser is not a good protection to impede someone from moving through.

"Think…" Alex exclaims. Then he realises what he needs to do.

"No, noooooooo, no, no. Do that?" He asks himself. To walk along a laser beam like a tight rope? That defies the laws of physics, but then again so does invisibility. He takes a step back before lunging himself onto the laser beam, sliding along the beam against all possible thoughts of falling. The beam only stays on for half a second, trapping Alex only a third of the way across. He falls into the pit with no visible bottom, which lasts for slightly more than a second. He lands right on his feet despite the unexpected nature of the fall, using his cane to balance himself in the air. The room below is dark initially, it suddenly flashes into brightness. A wide expanse, barren black floors and a mirrored roof that reflects the lighting from around the edge of the floor.

Suddenly the floor beneath him begins to lower, but other sections are not and other sections of the floor open up to reveal a series of obstacles. Hooks coming from the roof, pointy spires poking out from the floor and lasers blocking the path with chrome plated pole in the far corner, which looks like the exit to him. As soon as the floors and rooves and everything stops moving to set as they are, Alex looks for a path out of here. He analyses the path for a few seconds, climbing up platforms, opportunities to ninja spire jump across gaps to shorten the time, he feels confident after creating a plan. However, his plan goes right out the window just as he approaches the first raised platform, all the obstacles start moving again, changing the layout, making Alex have to plan the journey all over again.

He leaps onto a pointed spire and jumps to a raised platform that suddenly lowers as he grabs onto the edge and pulls himself up; he's right back to the same attitude as he started. The course is plotting against him with every single move he makes. He takes a leap across to a lowered platform and onto another, hoping that raw speed will beat the computer tracking his movements and making the decisions. But regardless of how fast his movements are, the computer's 'thoughts' are faster, but that doesn't mean that the pneumatics and magnetics controlling the room are. He realises that the platforms raises and lower the slowest, followed by the spikes, the hooks in the ceiling and the lasers moving the quickest.

Alex moves along the platforms as much as he can, continually rising and falling but incrementally finding a gain in height with each leap upwards. The pace he's moving at is faster than what he's achieved in his life, because this is a worthy opponent for his skills, a real test. Slowly, he manages to get closer after going at the course for nearly 2 minutes of hard and constant changing movement to go along with the changing movements of the course. He can almost leap onto the chrome pole on the other side which he hopes leads onto the other side. A hook juts out from the roof and he finally sees his opportunity to leave this area. He jumps of a spike and reaches out with his cane and swings using the hook, sending him forward onto the only platform that hasn't moved this whole time, the one attached to the pole. He grabs onto it with his free hand and feels the solidity of it, sweet solidity this room a lacked over the past few minutes. He look up and sees light at the top, quickly he climbs up the pole with one hand as the hole he has to fit through won't allow for him to have the cane in his mouth without it tilted sideways. As he climbs up the pole the light gets dimmer and dimmer, it was just a trick and it's not over yet much to Alex's delight. He was starting to enjoy the challenge once he got the hang of it.

He reaches the top of the pole and sees the small crawlspace at the top that is the only way forward. He feels the dimensions with his free hand, only about 70 centimetres wide and 50 centimetres high. There's no room to turn his body around so he has to decide whether or not to enter on his stomach or on his back. He chooses his back simply because it's easier for him to get in from this position. He enters head first, still holding onto the pole with his legs and one arm, once he's aligned himself properly with the crawlspace, he pushes off the pole using his legs. The raccoon has to lift up his back slightly so his tail doesn't get crushed under his body and also has to spread his legs out to accommodate the tail's volume which goes down to about halfway along the shin bone as it's longest point. This inconvenience is why it's preferable to go on his stomach. He has to feel his way around with no light visible from any direction, so he begins by shuffling his body using his hands and feet until he hits his head against a wall.

Alex sticks out an arm to feel for where the crawlspace leads. He feels the sides then feels the edges of the space rising up above his head. He leaves the cane on the horizontal area and begins moving himself as close to the far wall as possible to fit himself around the corner. He curves his back and braces his arms against the sides of the tunnel whilst he scrambles his legs to moves them around the gap. Once he stands up in the tiny gap barely big enough for him, he shuffles his foot along until he feels the hook of the cane. He turns his right leg around to the left and, using the back of his shoe, pushes the cane up against the stainless steel wall until it just makes it around the corner and allows Alex to pick it up with his right hand. The only way is up now.

He uses the tiny amount of room to perform a tiny jump, and whilst he's in the air, he braces himself against the sides using his forearms and his feet. Now he's off the ground, he thrusts himself up a little bit using his legs, bracing himself just a little bit higher than before. He repeats this jerking motion several times, each effort requires more effort as fatigue begins to set in. It's a slow and painful process, with each huge effort yielding a tiny gain in height. Once he's done 20 of these motions, making him 2 metres off the ground, he nods his head forward and backward against the sides to feel for any end to this torture. He does it another 10 times and still no end in sight.

_34… back, forward, nothing. 35… back, forward, nothing. 36… back, forward, nothing. 37… back, forward…_

Finally he can feel an edge and beyond that, a flat section. He braces himself with his feet and begins to slowly move his arms from being by his side to above his head so they can grapple onto the edge, putting his cane up there in the process. No more small movements with his legs anymore. He pulls himself up onto his stomach with the tunnel heading in the opposite direction he first entered, and also directly above it as well. Once on his stomach, he takes a brief second to rest his aching ankles and catch his breath. It also gives him an opportunity to see the literal light at the end of the tunnel coming from something below Quickly though, he gets a move on, shuffling himself forward using his forearms with his right hand holding the cane. It takes only 20 seconds for him to reach the end and see a downward path after moving only half as far as the first tunnel.

There is a small grating after about 50 centimetres down that prevents him from passing through to the end. He runs his hand along the edge to feel for what secures it, it's a completely flush finish with no screws, which tells Alex that it all he needs to do is lift it out. He reaches down with his left hand and grabs the grating by one of it's cold steel elements and passing it over his head, using the butt of the cane to push it back along the crawlspace until it's near his feet where it won't bother him. Alex looks at how to do this landing, head first is not the traditional way to do it and could also greatly shorten his potential thieving career. So he shuffles himself along further, bending his body downward to conform to the path of the tunnel. Once his torso is leaning down, he can see that where he's ended up is on the other side of the platform; he can just see the other side of the platform from where he started. He shuffles along his torso to further move himself along until he past the centre of gravity along this fulcrum, which mean gravity pulls him down quickly, making him fall down but he's stopped by his feet that have hooked themselves onto the flat section of the tunnel. He hangs upside down like a bat resting on a tree branch.

The floor is 2.5 metres below his head, and with such a tight space, a complete flip would be tricky. So he begins to slowly swing is body forwards and backwards to try and get a little bit of momentum. He gradually increases the amount of effort and waits until he can perform the stunt. He leans forwards with as much effort as he can muster, simultaneously moving his feet off their perch. He extends his arms out for balance and flips forwards and sticks the landing. Alex gets up and sees just how far he's come, he proud of himself, he may not have had the chance to face the skunk in a game of poker, but this was a far more rewarding experience. He can see the safe doors, huge steel monoliths shoved together with 3 large solid tungsten alloy pins clasping them together. He approaches the safe door and two security devices reveal themselves from inside the wall as a panel retracts; a handprint scanner and retina scanner. He places his bare hand on the scanner and look directly into the retina scanner. The small screen reveals the results.

_New Source_

_DNA Test to Confirm Acceptance_

Alex rubs his head hoping that a loose hair will detach itself and sure enough he gets a couple of dark grey hairs end up on his hand which he places into a small round receptacle that looks like a small petrie dish.

_Scanning…_

_4%..._

_27%..._

_53%..._

_79%..._

_99%..._

_100%..._

_DNA MATCH_

_OPEN SAFE?_

_Y/N_

Even this computer language is one that Alex can understand.

_Y_

He hears the whirring of the pins being retracted from their default positions that he thinks haven't moved for more than 10 years. A clunk signals that first process is done, then there is a huge whirring as the massive safe doors begin to open very slowly, only 5 centimetres per second. The doors open about 1 metre before they stop, lights turn on from inside the second safe, and what he sees is what any thief dreams of seeing, a whole heap of loot, booty and scores galore. He steps inside quickly to see everything for himself, paintings, ancient artefacts, precious metal and; bundled neatly in neat piles, stacks of cash in more than 10 different currencies. This is all his now, all of the contents inside. In fact, he expected more but he's not complaining. Behind him, a walkway extends out from the far end of the hidden room to intersect with the other side to safe him from combating the devious room below. He looks around at the room for the diamonds he promised to give to Matt to help him ease into the diamond market.

There are some display cases, which have pearl necklaces, diamond rings and the like but no raw or cut diamonds. He opens the black metal draw below and finds what he is looking for. There is a small maroon velvet pouch which Alex opens that contains numerous small diamonds, it brings a small smile to his face before he puts it back in the empty draw. He opens the one below and finds more gems of different colours, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds, these are the larger ones all set on a soft velour base. He picks up a medium sized diamond, about 5 carats and feels it in his hand. It's so smooth and yet the edges are so sharp. It's the hardest object in the world, the material that will scratch anything, even itself. He takes 4 diamonds and a pinch of the smaller diamonds and puts them into his empty left pocket. Having satisfied himself, he leaves the safe and once he steps onto the walkway, a pressure sensor relays to the vault door to shut it. The lights turn off and the steel doors slam together with a crash even at such a slow speed before a muffled crash from the locking pins rings out as Alex reaches the other side. As he approaches the door, the hidden door slides towards him as it did before and slides to the side to reveal the safety deposit box room.

This causes a great pang of frustration in him.


	17. Sabotage

**Chapter 17 – Sabotage**

**Zurich, Switzerland. 8:25pm, 5****th**** November 2032.**

"You're not happy with just the one million are you?"

"Not in the slightest."

"You don't care about the poker game." Alex accuses as he puts his cane in front of him as a defensive manoeuvre.

"All I care about is removing the constant boredom that I have, so I followed you here and… well, here we are." Jeremy says as he tries to saunter into the secret vault area, but Alex asserts his position.

"You're not getting in here." Alex warns.

"I don't see why not." Jeremy replies casually as he sticks out a leg just to taunt him, it makes Alex fake a jink forward which Jeremy anticipates and doesn't react to it.

"I'm not that stupid, going in there unarmed against you." Jeremy says sarcastically as he walks back to the black curtain that is still drawn across the front of the main vault. Alex uses his back tracking to move into the safe deposit box room to better guard the only entrance into the hidden safe room.

"Behold!" He says theatrically before raising the curtain to reveal a shackled antelope held in place by two henchmen. "The key to the safe!"

Arnold hangs quietly in the grip of the guards, preserving the confidence of the bank for as long as he is employed. The one security guard that helped open the safe is lying on the ground, dead.

"A social experiment, 30 seconds to save his life, the only way to do so is to tell me the combination to the safe. If not… let's just say it'll be painful." Jeremy warns before turning to the old antelope. "Oh, and you can play too to save your own life as well. So! Time starts now."

"Do not tell him anything." Arnold instructs to Alex. The next few seconds are full of tense silence. Jeremy checks his watch constantly to make sure he is on the exact right time.

"Okay, I'll play your game." Alex says, having thought of what he considers to be a brilliant idea. "It's a code with 3 billion digits with 4 options for each of the 3 billion digits. If did the math, then it'd take me too long. You know that too many combinations for you to crack, even with a supercomputer.

"I've got time, start listing each one down." Jeremy instructs. "Does it start with an A? or a C?, a G? or a T? I must say that one of the best explanations of a DNA secured lock I've heard of. That means the key is on you right now." Jeremy deduces.

Alex bursts forward to hit him with the cane in revenge. The first noise he hears is the crack of carbon fibre on Le Paradox as he strikes him in the side just below the ribs. The next noise he hears are the involuntary shouts and screams from the guards one by one in quick succession. Alex is more distracted by this than Jeremy who uses the time to try and pull a sneaky one on him that Alex is alive to it just before he kicks him, using his cane to block. Alex then hooks his cane around the leg of Le Paradox, holding his leg up to unbalance him.

"Alex, let's get out of here!" Matt exclaims from just outside the safe door.

"Matt?" Alex shouts as he trips Jeremy over by flicking over his leg using the cane.

"No time, the police are coming!" Matt says. "Hurry!"

Alex trips the skunk, sending him to the ground, and runs around the corner to get out of the safe, once Matt sees Alex sprinting, he turns to catch up to him.

"How'd you get in?" Alex asks as they climb up the stairs, Alex much faster than Matt, which means he gets to see the reason of how Matt got in. The front glass door is shattered and there are bodies lying on the ground, at least 5 just from his vantage point, the guards at the door, the guards at the top of the stairs, even the receptionist. This was not Matt's bidding, it's what he saw on the way in.

"Oh, Jeez." Alex exclaims in horror. "Oh no."

"Come on Alex, we need to move!" Matt says, unaffected by the presence of death around him, so much so that Alex is somewhat paralysed by the sight of it all.

"He's right." Jeremy says as he jogs up the stairs straight past them, unaffected by everything around him. "Until next time." He says, abandoning his personnel and walks straight past the lingering stench of death that is floating around the foyer without a second thought. Alex is half paralysed, unable to move.

"They're dead, we can't help them." Matt says from the top of the stairs. Alex is still shocked at the sight, Matt has to return to him to try and restart him.

"Snap out of it!" Matt says, snapping his fingers in front of his face. He sees Alex's eyes dart to his face. "Move!"

Alex starts moving slowly forward, as if he was trying to sneak past a security guard, one that's still living. Matt puts his arm around him to drag him forward and uses the other to cover his eyes, hoping the sensory deprivation will get him through this.

"Don't look, just keep moving." Matt says calmly as he ushers him through the lobby floor and towards the front door. He brings him to the front and onto the footpath where he receives fresh air and Alex knows that he's no longer in the private bank anymore.

"Am I outside?" Alex asks quickly.

"Yeah, yeah." Matt replies, uncovering his face to see the nearly empty street.

"K, ok, let's get to a safe spot." Alex instructs, hearing the sirens in the distance. He sprints off ahead of Matt around the bank and along the street; occasionally slowing down to make sure he doesn't lose him. Alex moves into small alleyway where there is no one watching. Surprisingly to Alex, Matt is the least tired out of the two of them.

"Are you seriously scared of dead people, of bodies?" Matt asks as Alex leans against a wall to just recoup himself.

"Don't act like it's some flaw, okay. It's just, I saw them all alive only 10 minutes before and then; because of me, they're dead." Alex moans.

"No, It's because of Jeremy's henchmen that they are dead." Matt reassures him.

"I'm not as mentally tough as you are, what was that video game or something you played when I first saw you?" Alex asks to himself.

"I didn't play it and it's not the reason why…" Matt tries to explain but Alex isn't buying it in his emotionally distraught and stubborn state.

"How can't you be… affected by this? Those are people dead… dead! Real people, not on a screen, people that exist and have families and…" Alex rants in self-loathing.

"Alex, take it easy here." Matt tries to assure him.

"Do you not feel anything?" Alex moans.

"Alex, you're overreacting." Matt says, turning his calmness into being unpleased with his reaction.

"You have a heart of steel, not of flesh!" Alex rants.

"Alex…"

"Are you as cold as the skunk?!"

"Alex…"

"What?!"

"If you're wondering, it's because of this that you're out here and not in there with another dead body." He says, holding out a taser that he quickly replaces into his pocket.

"You shot them?" Alex asks. "How could you?"

"They're not dead, they'll be fine in a couple of minutes after the tingling sensation dies down once their in the back of a police van." Matt explains. "It's a Taser remember, not what they used."

Alex is still deeply distraught and in shock, his hands are a little jittery much unlike their usual controlled selves.

"We have to hide somewhere." Alex says, like a sudden impulse has overridden him. "We have to get away from here."

"Woah there." Matt says, tugging back on Alex's shirt from running off. "You're the thief, you know that if were going to not act suspicious that we have to stay calm, we walk, not run. You're not thinking straight; you have to take a break. Take a week off, go back to London, to your sister Erin. In fact, I'll call her now; she'll sort you out. Can you pass your phone?"

"No, I'll do it." Alex says, reluctantly getting his phone out and dials for Erin. It dials some more and then some more before it goes to a message.

"Sorry I couldn't answer, and if this is Alex calling I'll call you back as soon as I can." It says. Even the sound of her voice in such a bland and controlled setting seems to have a positive effect on him that Matt notices.

"You should go take a break with your sister, stay with her for a week or so then we can revaluate our plans unless Antonio decides he doesn't want some art adorned on his walls." Matt suggests.

Alex is trying to fight the suggestion out of selfish stubbornness, but in truth it's what he wants to do.

"Do it for yourself, you're not pulling any heists in this state." Matt warns. There is a brief pause as Alex thinks it all though, staring blankly at the opposite wall. "'you there?"

"Yeah… yeah, I should do that." Alex agrees but that past few minutes have been troubling for him, the whole ordeal is troubling for him. Alex slowly slides down the wall until he's sitting on the ground with his legs pressed close to his body. "Here…"

Alex opens his pocket and fishes out the diamonds he wanted to give to the rat.

"Take these." Alex insists.

"Their… massive. These will work perfectly." Matt thanks to his sullen friend as he looks at them in all of their beautiful shining glory.

"You can go, I just want to sit here for a bit." Alex says, the pavement has never felt so comfortable.

"I'm not going till you leave first." Matt says as he sees an ambulance whizz past with it's siren wailing and it's lights flashing that briefly illuminate the alley. He turns around and Alex is no longer there, however, he's not fooled. He moves back to the exact spot to where Alex was sitting and extends out his arm, expecting to feel something he can't see. He reaches into the corner and touches nothing until the side of the building. He looks down the other side of the alleyway and just catches a glimpse of a raccoon running off around the corner with a cane in their hand. He wonders what changed his mind so quickly but he realises that it doesn't matter, he's just glad that he did.


	18. Surprise

**Chapter 18 – Surprise!**

**Oxford, England. 12:57pm, 6****th**** November 2032. **

Another Friday night out...

She knows that most of her classmates would be getting smashed tonight to finish the week off in not much style at all. Alcohol unlocks the mind much a like a key unlocks a safe, people's lives seem to spill out of their mouths; parts which, when sober, they would not think of saying. It's for that reason, and many others, she doesn't hang around in that crowd and much like at school, is usually only ever consulted when someone doesn't understand something.

It's a chilly night, getting close to zero degrees Celsius. She's warmed herself in a black nylon jacket with a high neck that goes hallway up her neck over a grey long sleeve shirt and a black beany which covers most of her hair, with one part of her fringe just popping out from above her right eye at the front and also the hair from the back. She also has a pair of black gloves that are very similar to Alex's except their not designed for climbing and a backpack for carrying her things that's less than half full of books. Erin walks into the lobby of a recently built block of flats designed for student housing; 4 separate buildings each 8 stories high. She takes the lift to the 3rd floor, only sleep is on her mind now, as soon as she gets in there she will get straight onto the bed and fall asleep. She walks up to her small flat, only 25 square metres, and touches the handle; it feels… off. She takes her right glove off and touches it again, it's too warm, recently touched and no sign of forced entry. She goes to the room across and touches that one; it's noticeably colder. She returns to her own room and presses her ear against the door to hear for anything but hears nothing. She puts her key in the lock with caution and turns it slowly to avoid making too much noise.

The lock unlocks and she inches opens the door open to get a peak inside. Once she sees nothing, she opens the door fully, to make sure someone isn't hiding in the blind spot where the front door can cover their body from view. Half of her space is taken up by the tiny kitchen and living room with the other half being split by a partition wall with a gap in the middle into a bedroom/study area and a bathroom. She walks into the kitchen area with the living area, a couch and a TV, on the far side with a window looking into the housing complex.

"If someone's in here!" She commands. "You show yourself before I kick you out!"

She moves into her bedroom and puts her backpack down next to a small wardrobe that look more like tall narrow kitchen cabinets. She reaches past a think winter coat on a hanger into the back and grabs the cane from the back. She knows how to use it too, but she hasn't needed to do so very often. She moves to the bathroom and opens the door quickly to check inside for only a few seconds since there are no hiding spots inside the cramped room. She returns to her bed, a raised bed that makes use of the lack of space by allowing for a desk to be put underneath, and checks in the last hiding place she knows of. What Erin sees is that the blanket is raised in the centre despite nothing being there, the pillow is also sunken near the middle with nothing on it as well. She turns the cane around and uses the shaft to see if her brother has decided to crash here for the night. She feels the invisible raccoon lying in the bed.

"I know you're awake." She warns but at the same time she's giving him some slack.

"I'm sorry for breaking in and sleeping on your bed." He apologises. "I tried calling you but you didn't answer."

Erin gets out her phone from her pocket and realises that she has 21 missed calls to her surprise. Her phone was on silent, not wanting to be disturbed.

"I guess I would have done the same thing." She replies jokingly. It brings a brief smile to Alex's face. "So… how long did it take for you to pick the lock?"

"You don't think I came through the window?" He asks tiredly.

"Was it, more than a half minute?"

"I wasn't counting, I just wanna go to sleep." Alex moans as he readjusts his position on the bed.

"The handle was warm, you've been here for less than 5 minutes. It's about that details Alex, details make or break." Erin explains.

"So you're the master thief now?" Alex asks sarcastically.

"I'm being supportive." Erin replies. "You can sleep there just for tonight, if you're planning to stay any longer you have to take the couch."

"I'll take the floor if I have to." Alex replies, it feels so good to be here right now even if the roof is only a metre above him. It doesn't matter to him, he falls asleep the same way.

* * *

**6:14am**

"Breakfast!" Erin shouts, having somehow gone into the kitchen and gotten some cereal without him hearing anything. He turns his head and sees her walking from the kitchen bench next to the fridge with two bowls of cereal with spoons already in them. She's walking to the couch to put them on the small coffee table, the only table in the flat, which she only uses in formal occasions when people are around, if not the kitchen bench is good enough. Alex shuffles himself across the bed and leaps off the top into the floor to get some food into his mouth, but there's already someone there.

"Morning Alex." Jeremy says kindly as Erin comes down to sit next to him and already getting to the task of eating.

"Wha? You!" Alex accuses as he steps back and grabs his cane to pound him. When he returns, Erin is lying unconscious on the couch with milk dripping down the side of her mouth that poisoned her.

"You're dead!" Alex shouts at him, but he can't move, stuck to the floor.

"No." Jeremy replies calmly, reaching into his suit jacket pocket with his leather-gloved hand.

"You are."

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

* * *

**2:45am**

Bang! Alex hits his head against the roof as he wakes out of the nightmare. He breathes in sharply to ease the pain.

"Argh." He exclaims before he puts his hand onto his forehead to help with the pain as well. He lies back down in the bed in relief that it was a dream, and with that thought his breathing gradually begins to slow down again. He's too tired to stay awake, besides, he's not going to get worked up about the dream when already so much is happening in the real world.

* * *

**25****th**** November, 9:31pm.**

"We've got 3 minutes." Matt rings in his ear. "The guards are leaving their posts. Deactivating electronics in 30 seconds. You better be at the grate by then."

"I'll be there." Alex radios in as he moves through the vent system, the heating is turned on very much tonight to Alex is sweating. He sees the 3 metre drop in the vent that Matt warned him about. He takes the magnetic anchor and attaches it to the top of the vent and puts the tiny carbon nanotube cable that's as thick as a string around the hook before he rappels down to the bottom. He presses a button on a small watch and the electro magnets deactivate on the anchor whilst the cable spools back up to onto to a wheel attached to the centre of a utility belt. He catches the anchor and puts it onto a magnet on the right of his belt. He crouches down and sees the final grating. He crawls up to just behind the grate to wait for Matt's cue.

"5 Seconds." Matt says. "Positions."

"3, 2, 1." Matt counts down before the power goes out in the room, he knows this because the lights go off and the heating turns off. Alex takes out a tiny cylinder shaped like a vial and places the open end over the first bolt. He shifts his thumb and presses down on the back, there is a muffled explosion before he takes it off, the screw has been melted away. He quick does this on the other three before he takes the grating off and places it behind him. Alex gets his first peak at the paintings and other artefacts that are due to be sold tomorrow, amongst them are the 5 paintings he's been waiting to steal for 3 weeks.

"I've got the paintings." Alex radios in, stepping towards them all. "Removing canvas."

He takes the first painting and turns it onto it front to see the nails holding it to the frame. He takes a specialised device about the size of the device he used previous made from carbon fibre, not only because it's light or strong but mainly because it's non-magnetic. It contains a powerful magnet that will remove the nails holding the painting to the frame. He move it over the nails and one by one they slip out of the painting like they were inserted into sand on a beach. He separates the frame from the painting itself and lies the canvas face up on the ground. Once he does this, he can hear something very strange, a distant rumbling coming from outside the safe.

"Do you hear that?" Alex asks.

"No time for distractions." Matt warns. Alex follows his instruction and grabs the second painting and lies it face down, but the rumbling is getting louder. He can hear the frame begin to rattle on the concrete floor. It makes the process of removing the nails difficult, what makes it worse is that the noise is becoming unbearable. Alex stops and backs away from the direction it's coming from. The noise rises to a crescendo before a huge hammer blow is struck as one of the walls of the underground strong room caves in, along with a part of the Black sea rushing along the sides of the object that has intruded rather bluntly. He looks up at it past the broken reinforced concrete and sees that it's a huge safe with the same door he saw in hidden vault that's almost the size of the wall it broke through. Alex is in shock as the water gets to his feet. He looks towards the vent he came in which is only 50 cm off the ground for safety from drowning. He was about to step towards it but he sees the safe open by itself to reveal it's contents.

"Too late again Alex." Jeremy taunts as he steps out of the dry safe and onto the wet floor where the water is up to his knees. "I've spoiled your prize."

"Not this time." Alex retorts as he steps through the rising water towards the skunk to end him. To Alex's dismay, Jeremy takes out a weirdly shaped gun and fires it straight at him, the projectile being a net with several heavy balls on the end to weigh it down. Alex is caught right in the centre, the sheer momentum of the net takes him off his feet and almost sends him into the far wall. He's bundled in the centre with all of the heavy steel balls quickly converging on each other.

"Magnetic weights, you won't be coming out of there soon, which I estimate to be in about 30 seconds. Bye." Jeremy says cheerfully as he disappears from view. Alex takes his last gulp of air, the net weights him down and he can't stand up because he doesn't have the room to do so. He begins to thrash wildly at the net, hoping it would open up for him, he struggles and struggles, tosses and turns before the whole room begins to fall…

* * *

**5:48am, 6****th**** November 2032**

A thud like a sack of potatoes rings out from Alex after he rolled off the bed. He moans tiredly with a hint of anger, how can Jeremy be infiltrated in his mind like this?! Alex does feel like getting up at all but not because of the pain, that's minimal as he's used to falling from heights, but because the wood is somewhat comfortable and it puts distance from him and the place where horrible dreams are made up.

"Alex?" Erin asks from the other room, the thud has woken her up. "D'you fall?"

Alex's muffled aching and moaning from the fall brings Erin to action.

"Here." She says, offering her hand to get him up which Alex accepts but won't help along himself. Erin gasps his wrist with two hands to lift him up with as much effort as she can. Seeing that she's doing this for him, Alex gets up using his own energy and once standing, it takes a short few seconds for him to get his balance that is unusual for him to do.

"Nightmares?" Erin asks with deep concern.

"No I…" Alex tries to lie about it, but Erin can see straight through him. He looks into her eyes, words can't display the imagery he's seen. His eyes jitter to either side before going back to Erin for one second before looking wildly around for somewhere to hide. Erin places a hand on his shoulder to stabilise him.

"Really bad nightmares?"

"Please, just… go back to sleep." Alex replies, afraid.

"It's nearly 6 o'clock, I'm not going back to sleep and besides. You look like you've been tortured. You need to know I'm here for you."

"I know, you don't have to say so." Alex says modestly.

"I hope so too, cause one day I might need yours." Erin replies back, but that statement seems such a distant possibility. She looks like she's has no problems, the whole world at her feet. "So, hungry? I've got cereal, it's not much but I get by."

She moves to the kitchen and opens a cabinet mounted high on the wall and grabs a box of cereal from the kitchen, she takes it out and quickly puts it back upon seeing the contents. She grabs another one and this time puts it on the bench before grabbing two bowls from the lower cabinet. She then moves to the fridge in a well-timed routine she's done every morning. Erin opens the fridge the smallest amount she will allow before quickly taking out the milk and shutting it again. She does a quick double take but he doesn't look like he's eager to eat, she didn't need to worry as much.

"Here, eat." She instructs briefly. He trudges into the kitchen and looks at everything laid in front of him.

"Maybe later." Alex answers.

"It's not coming out again." Erin warns.

"I can find where everything is, it's not a big kitchen." Alex comments.

"I have things in order here, in such a small space everything has to be positioned perfectly for it to fit." Erin warns.

"So I can't just grab what I need around here?" Asks Alex.

"If you need anything, I'll get it for you, okay."

"Okay." Alex agrees. He goes to the couch and sits down and turns on the TV to find a 24-hour news channel being the channel that was last watched.

"You watch the news?" Alex asks out curiosity.

"I like to know what's going on around the world." Erin answers as she pours the milk into her bowl having put the cereal in it already.

"The same but for different reasons." Alex remarks.

"…_Now to end on something unusual. What would you do if you found out artworks that you owned were all fakes? Seems unlikely but that's the question facing a group of art dealers planning to auction more than £100 million of rare art in a few weeks in Romania, have been found to be fake. The dealers in question have been taken into custody and will face charges of fraud and forgery." _

Alex sits stunned; there is nothing that could compound his woes more. He holds his head in his hands and shakes his head in pure disbelief.

"Aaaaaaarrrrgh!" He shouts raising his fist high before bringing it down in rage towards the table, the table winds the fight. The pain is excruciating but the anger dulls it for Alex.

"No!... No! No! No! No!..." Alex shouts, banging his fist down in time with every single shout until the pain is no longer dull but sharp. Erin would have interfered, but it's easier if he burnt out his anger on his own, even if it might wake up some of the neighbours.

"_Reminding you of our top story, The US is precariously close to having to default on it's $30 trillion plus debt. If the debt ceiling is not raised before the 10__th__ November deadline, no doubt the effects will be catastrophic…"_

"What happened?" Erin asks once this happens.

"Argh!" Alex exclaims in continued frustration. "That auction was going to be my heist and now it's worthless."

"What was the potential take?" Erin asks.

"5 paintings worth £20 million total." Alex replies.

"Decent." She replies before taking another spoonful.

"What do you mean decent? Is that nothing for you? Is this apartment worth £50 million and that cereal is worth £1 million. Is rare art no longer worth anything?" Alex rants.

"Apparently." Erin replies, referencing the news report. Alex starts to chuckle before it escalates into a full on laugh. "That wasn't that funny."

"I should have seen it coming." He says to himself.

"What?"

"That crime lord I told you about on the phone, he did this. I don't know how he could do this but I know that it's him, I'm sure of it." Alex realises.

"Looks like you need to go steal something of his, something he values." Erin suggests.

"I don't know of anything he values when he thinks millions is nothing to him." Alex rebuts.

"If someone stole your cane or the Thievius Raccoonus, you'd be pissed because you value them so highly, as would I. No one can be so completely detached that they value nothing in the world." Erin explains.

"He complains about being bored, I'm like this little play toy and when he's gotten enough use out of me he'll discard me, I'll be nothing." Alex complains.

"Now, that's only if you let yourself be tossed around. You need to let him know that you won't accept that." Erin responds.

"How?"

"And we come back full circle, you have to steal something from him, to prove that he's vulnerable and not as powerful as you think he is and also that you have power over him. Think of the fear that would induce in him if he knew that Alex Cooper could just waltz inside and leave him bare at a whim." Erin explains.

"That's nice and all having faith and belief in me. But the short story is that I don't know anything about him, where he lives or even what he actually does apart from ruin my life." Alex replies.

"Then, find them out. Track him down and exact revenge." Erin replies.

"You seem to want this more than me."

"Isn't this what you want? Or am I totally off track?" Erin asks.

"I don't know. I have to think this over. I need time." Alex states.

"Tell you what." Erin suggests, thinking of a new way to calm down her brother. "You can come hang out with me, come meet my friends."

"You have friends?" Alex asks.

"Well, yeah. Met them during my classes." Erin says, finishing her food. "Come along, they won't mind."

There's not much that is worse than seeing is what was just on TV, so he thinks that this will certainly be better than that. He drags himself off the couch and towards the door where Erin is already putting on her jacket to leave. She also takes her backpack that was where she left if from last night and leaves in front of Alex who shuts the door behind her. They move down the concrete stairs and out into the same cold morning. Alex pulls his sleeves to the maximum length, which goes up to his fingertips. They walk down the footpath along the road for about 10 minutes with Alex following Erin until they reach a disused shop front in town front that looks to be either in disrepair on in renovations depending on the way one looks inside it.

"Your friends live here?" Alex asks in surprise, he's not thinking of the shop itself but of the floor above it.

"You could say that, they spend most of their time here." Erin says. "We'll go around the back, it's the easiest way in."

"Or…" Alex answers, looking at the surroundings. "We could try…"

Alex looks to left where his sister was standing but she is no longer there, instead, she's standing on the top of the ledge of the shop, opening the front window from the outside.

"You were saying?" Erin says, waiting for her brother to get the picture. He's clearly stunned that she would do this, he's not sure of the reason why though. What he does do is look at the side of the shop and see a small ledge for where a large wooden sideboard meets a glass window, aided by the shimmering lights. The boost from that ledge is enough to jump up to the small overhang of the shop to get onto the first floor. He does this in a few seconds, probably as long as Erin took to do the same thing he thinks. Erin is already inside and Alex moves through the same window and into an empty room full of plastic tubs with various pieces of materials in them sitting on the unvarnished wooden floorboards. This spot is in terrible shape; the pain is flaking, some floorboards are missing and the roof as several signs that it's not water tight as indicated by the stains that turn the white paint a yellowy brown tinge.

"Where is everyone?" Alex asks, he can't see anyone in this room or in the room beyond.

"I don't know." Erin says in confusion. "I wasn't expecting this."

"So what's meant to be happening here?" Alex asks, he too sensing that something is wrong. Erin does take on board that question; or if she did, which Alex thinks she certainly did, then she's deep in something else. Alex tries so see what she's looking.

"Just say there, don't move." Erin instructs, not wanting him to enter into the next room. So Alex looks around makeshift storage room for something which Erin doesn't want to tell about right now, unusual for her because in front of Alex, she's not that secretive. It looks to be in the same condition as the room Erin's in, but there's nothing that he can see that Erin would be looking for over where Erin is. It's empty from his view.

"What are you looking for?" Alex asks. "I can help."

"Just, hold on a second." She says as she looks at the condition of the floor. She sees the dust outlines of things that used to be here but are no longer.

"I'm just going to make a call." Erin says as Alex sees her get out her phone and quick call someone, probably one of her friends.

"It's Erin." She replies. "Where are you guys? Did you take some of the stuff home?...Everything's gone… woah, slow down, I can't hear what... That's not happened… Yeah, okay, okay… bye."

"What did they say?" Asks Alex.

"There was some equipment laid out along the side of the room. We had this table which had a 3D printer and some other things on it. This was where we'd go after university and build stuff like… like anything we wanted. In those tubs we'd scrounge materials like plastics and then melt them down to use to make new things." Erin explains. "And now it's all been stolen."

Alex immediately makes the only correlation he thinks is possible right now.

"That's low." Alex states. "Going after you."

"That's not…" Erin refutes. However, she sees Alex's reaction to this coincidence.

"Do you think… that, right after I see you, something being stolen from you is just a coincidence? It's not possible." Alex rants. "I'm going to get that stuff back for you."

"We don't know…" Erin tries to explain, trying to slow down the pace that this is going.

"I know, you just won't accept it." Alex answers. Erin grabs her brother by the upper arms to clasp him and to prevent him from rushing off and doing something hasty.

"Slow down Alex! We can't do much unless we have facts." Erin replies.

"Time is being wasted, we need to get back to your place and protect dad's cane and mine as well, and the Thievius Raccoonus!" Alex counters.

"We don't need to worry about the book." Erin replies. Alex wonders why.

"But…" Alex tries to reply, hoping that his sister has not been misrepresented in the importance of it.

"It's in my bag." Erin answers.

"Thank god." Alex says with a massive reply. "Can I see it?"

"Yeah, do you think it will help?" Erin asks as she takes off her backpack and puts it down to open the zipper to reveal the massive book, which is so revered from the both of them. Alex takes it out carefully and opens it to close to the end and points to a photograph.

"This guy. Cyrille Le Paradox, it's his son, that's who's after me. It's like he has some obsession with me, I don't know if it's because of what happened with dad or something else but I'm sure he's behind everything. See, look at this. '_He tried to prove he was better by stealing the canes of me and my ancestors. I don't know if he was spurred on by revenge or just pure competitiveness. But I consider him no better than Clockwerk in thinking that by depriving me of something it would somehow make me weak. That, without either my cane or this book I'd be somehow won't be able to do anything. But what they don't know or just can't see is that they don't give me special abilities, but that it's the other way around." _Alex reads from the Thievius Raccoonus.

"So, is history just going to repeat itself?" Erin asks, but for all that's rational in her thoughts, she's not exactly going to take his words as gospel. Alex was about to explain but he's put off by a siren coming from the distance.

"Police." Alex notes as the siren becomes two sirens.

"Just sit tight." Erin assures Alex not to make a hasty getaway when they don't even know that they are going to come for them. But Alex moves to the edge of the window to see if they are indeed police vehicles because he can't use the sound of the engine to tell apart vehicles because they're electric. The tyre roar makes all vehicles sound the same, so Alex takes just a tiny peak over the window to see that they are not police cars but fire trucks, two of them shooting down the road in haste to somewhere.

"Phew, no worries, it's just a fire truck." Alex answers, moving back from the window a tiny bit.

"We have to go back to my place." Erin concludes.

"We have to protect your stuff, that's going to go next." Alex says, opening the window to the tiny amount of sunlight that's appearing over the horizon. He places the Thievius Raccoonus back into her backpack before they both leave via the normal exit down a rotted wooden staircase that has been subject to a lot of water damage. They go through the shop and move out on to the street where they walk along back to Erin's tiny and cramped apartment. What becomes apartment quickly is that there is a light over the horizon, not the sun, but something brighter and much, much closer. As soon as Erin realises what it is, she breaks into a full sprint along the road because her building is on fire! Alex manages to just keep up with her and it only takes them both a bit over a minute to reach the foot of the building, where fire trucks are already controlling the blaze. Much to her relief, the fire was not near her apartment. It was one of the first floor flats which had flames bursting out of the windows and high pressure water flooding in from the fire-fighters as well as the in built sprinkler system. There are police and ambulances in attendance as well amongst all of the tenants which have rushed out onto the street as part of an evacuation.

"That's probably the most scared I have ever been in my life." Erin remarks to her brother as they see the flames start to die down a bit as the fire fighters tighten their grip on the blaze. They're a lot of nervous chit chat which is dying down as anxiousness takes over about when they will be allowed back in. Alex catches a glimpse of the victim whose flat has been severely damaged both by fire and water. He's wrapped up in a reflective blanket sitting in the back of an ambulance as a precaution, speaking to the police about the ordeal.

"Can I please have everyone's attention?" The fire chief instructs over a megaphone to the crowd amassed outside the building whose voices begin to quieten down. "The fire has been contained to just one property and a small section of the outside corridor so once we have fully extinguished the fire, we will give the all clear to return inside except for those on the first floor. The police are treating the fire as suspicious so they are sealing the area off for a period of time to examine the scene. Thank you for your attention this morning for firstly evacuating quickly and safely and for also raising the alarm as soon as possible so we can get here and do our job."

The crowd goes back to chatting with their neighbours after his speech has finished. But Alex doesn't have anyone to talk to, he instead what's what the emergency services are doing. The police are setting up a drone to get some imagery of the damage from the outside, they don't seem to care that a thief is amongst the crowd. After another five minutes of blasting water into the apartment to be 100% sure that the fire is completely put out. The firemen and women begin to filter the tenants and guests back in slowly. Alex and Erin move in with the crowd and up the stairs to her apartment. They see other walking into their with a sign of relief, Erin opens up her apartment to a look of shock. The kitchen cupboards are open, items are strewn on the floor; the flat has been ransacked.

"You were right." Erin admits, looking through the kitchen cupboards for any items that were stolen, which turns out to be a significant portion of them, but what Alex wonders is why she would look to see if there are any missing items in there first. Alex checks to see if the cane is still there, and to his massive wave of relief, it is exactly where he left it from before he went to sleep, resting up against Erin's desk underneath the bed. It was a deliberate move Alex thinks, Jeremy must have learnt from the mistakes of his father.

"I was hoping I was wrong." Alex comments.

"The fire was a distraction, someone lit it, forcing the evacuation of the building. Whilst everyone is outside he breaks in and steals everything he can get his hands on without worrying about being seen before leaving out the back." Erin explains, thinking the probable method that the thief would have taken.

"In any case, I don't think he even knows what rule one is, or even cares about it." Alex notes.

"It doesn't matter." She answers as she completes her inspection.

"What so important in those cabinets apart from food and cutlery that you'd get worried about being stolen?" Alex asks, this question brings hesitation and doubt into Erin's mind.

"I haven't been… totally honest to you, about me." She says.

"Why?"


	19. The Itch

**Chapter 19 – The Itch**

Erin Cooper is a master thief.

She didn't even think that it would be in that profession almost all the way through school. It was Alex's dream she thought, why should she spoil it for him by being better? In any case, stealing didn't appeal to her as much as it did to Alex, as Alex knows all too well. However, it became clear that, as she was approaching the end of her schooling, there was an itch, an itch that could not be ignored or avoided. There was a burning desire within that raged within her that she could not quell with all of her mental control or intelligence. There was only one cure to even get close to getting some relief; she had to steal.

She wondered whether she was a kleptomaniac. Perhaps it's a genetic trait that has been passed down from the generations, a very dominant gene present in every Cooper offspring. It made logical sense to her, the only sense she understands. The feeling, she thought, was comparable from that of withdrawal symptoms except she hadn't even started yet. It took a lot of self-discipline and self-control to not just stick her hands into the pockets of other students to relieve them of their mobile phones, wallets or anything else she could easily hide on her. It was tempting, very tempting, to give in to the itch that became greater every day she knew it was there. But Erin was strong and managed to stave it off for a considerable amount of time until she was out of school and could not harm people she didn't want to steal from.

The break between school and University was painful. The growing need to steal was going to spill over uncontrollably soon if it wasn't relieved somehow. So, she had a brilliant idea that both satisfied her need to increase her knowledge and to quell the itch. It was going to be a simple heist, nothing tangible, just information. The information being the exam results from her A-Levels. To get at this information, she would either need someone who could hack into the system remotely or to go in there herself and find a computer which could access it. The first option was one she wasn't going to do, who would even trust that she could pull it off apart from Alex, who was thousands of kilometres away in Accra, Ghana. She knew which building it was, a government controlled building in Central London which didn't look to her like much trouble to get into.

Upon some casing of the entrance of the building, it was soon apparent that the task was a bit more difficult that she imagined. They didn't want anyone to leak that data; in the lobby there was a biometric scanner that was always under supervision by a security guard who also monitored the security cameras for that area. Even when the guards changed over, they would both overlap so no there was no weak time where it could be exposed. Of course, she knew that the front entrance would be the most difficult but also the easiest way in. Therefore, Erin knew that she needed to consider the more unconventional entrance; unconventional for the general population, almost necessary for a master thief. She had no equipment she could use to get her way in, so she needed to rediscover the climbing ability that was still lingering in her. She told Tim that she was going out for the night, and that was what she did.

Using a nearby and less secure building, she got to the top of the building and onto the roof in the dark of the night. She walked amongst the air conditioning and heating vents which obscured her vision of where the entrance into the uppermost floor of the building. She made her way along the rooftop but she heard something, the foot of footsteps and hush chatter. She begins to sneak down low and move silently behind a heating unit.

"Come on, hurry." Erin overhears, also hearing the sound of metal against metal. More specifically, someone's trying to pick a lock.

"Here, you try it."

Erin takes a look around the unit to see what happening. She sees a group of four dressed in dark clothing huddled around the door, watching as they each try their hand at picking the lock. Erin weighs up the chances of exposing herself with the time wasted due to their incompetence.

"Come on, just one more try."

"No, we can't stay for much longer before they send a drone past here and spots us."

"Here, I'll get it this time." Passing the lockpicking implements to someone else in the group. Erin decided that this is her time to enter, but how exactly to get them to not turn on her in an instant is what the difficult part was.

"Pssst." She hisses from behind. Some of them turn around.

"Who are you?" A short squirrel asks quickly, worrying that they're about to be found out by a rival. "You here to break in?"

"Yeah." She replies instinctively.

"Can you pick the lock?" A dark brown furred cat asks.

"What do you have?" Asks the cat who shows the metal pointed implement in her hand. It could be mistaken for a screwdriver but it doesn't undo screws, it's meant to be used to pick locks, so right now it's not fulfilling it's purpose.

She passes the pick to Erin and she goes up to the lock and looks at it and sticks the pick inside the lock itself and begins to work away quickly, holding the lock in one hand and the pick in the other. In less than 5 seconds she hears the lock open and quickly opens the door for them all to get inside. But they've become stunned as to her technique and how she did it so quickly.

"Here." Erin says, offering back the pick to the cat.

"How'd you do that?" A possum asks.

"You guys go in first." Erin instructs. "You were here first anyway so you should do the honour."

"You're here to change your results too?" The final member of the group, a ferret with dark red fur who is only a tad shorter than she is.

"No, I want to see my results. Whatever, I get I'll live with it." Erin replies.

"Not even if you do bad?"

"I deserve whatever score I get." Erin replies, she watches the ferret go inside and she goes in last, shutting the door behind her. They walk down the set of stairs and the first three have stopped when they see the light entering in from the open archway that leads into a set of offices.

"Where to next?" The squirrel whispers.

"In those offices, one of those computers has got to have access to the database."

"Who's going in there?"

"We agreed it's S." The cat iterates.

"S?" Erin asks.

"First name initials so no one know who we are in case we're caught." The cat answers.

"That doesn't work." Erin whispers back. "They'll figure who you are, you're not wearing gloves so you're finger prints are everywhere."

"Are some kind of expert on thievery? If you're so good then you go find us a computer that can access us into the database." The ferret asks.

"First answer, reluctantly yes and secondly, yes." Erin replies. The other four they feel that they are not as out of their depth as they were before she arrived.

"Are you a thief? Like, professionally?" The squirrel answers as Erin moves from the back of the group to the front.

"No, but you could say it's in my blood." Erin replies as she backs herself against the side of the wall that's right next to the archway. She takes a small peak at what's inside, a very organised and exactly layout of cubicles, trying to cram as many people into a tiny amount of prime London office space. The multiple block coloured partition walls provide plenty of cover.

"Then why are you helping us?" The ferret asks.

"Coincidence." Erin replies before poking her head around the corner to check for security cameras. She spots one in each of the corners of the room and retracts her head before she gets found out.

"Can anyone turn off the security cameras?" Erin whispers back to the group.

"Cameras? I told you." The cat replies back to the ferret.

"Hey, hey, hey." He responds quickly to quieten them down. "There would have to be like a security room somewhere here where we could disable them."

"No chance, only the lobby cameras a monitored internally, these will be monitored by an external company." Erin answers.

"Then why did you ask if we could stop them?" The squirrel asks.

"Because, maybe one of you can hack into them and replace it with a movie on repeat." Erin replies. Judging from their silence, she thinks the answer is no. "Okay, plan B. Follow me."

Erin moves down the staircase crouched low so no one can see her walk past from their cubicles. She turns her head and sees that the others are following, but less confidently and more nervously then her. The floor below is similar to the previous floor, a lot of cubicles in a small amount of space, but the lights are off and no one is inside. Erin checks around the corner again and finds the same camera layout as before.

"This will be easier, but the light from the computers will be noticed immediately by the cameras." Erin quickly whispers. "So we have to take one of the computers underneath one of the desks to do this so we don't get seen."

She takes their silence this time as acceptance.

"Follow exactly where I go, and when we stop you all have to hide under the desks to not be seen. And stay low and quiet." Erin instructs. She moves away from the staircase and up next to the wall before darting into the office space moving behind a cubicle wall. She quickly moves along the length to the corner of the room under the security camera's blind spot. She double checks that everyone is behind her before moving quickly around the corner and halfway along the side before entering into the maze of cubicles. She goes right into the centre, where the cameras will have the least chance of seeing her, and stops. Erin checks that everyone has caught up before pointing to under a desk. They all oblige willingly and each of them takes refuge under a desk. They each peak their heads out enough to just see what this stranger is doing.

Erin goes to one of the desk crouched right down, balancing on her toes, and reaches up to grab the 4 spherical projectors, that like look live very old webcams, off the top of the four corners of the cubicles, whose partition walls are shaped in an upside down U. She puts them all on the ground underneath the desk before grabbing the motion sensor off the back wall. The workers in here only have screen for a workspace because all of the computer grunt power is done below. It's cheaper to buy the one big computer to power all the workstation rather than an individual computer per workstation due to how reliable the Internet is and how cheap powerful computers are. Erin begins to set the same thing up, instead underneath the desk. She places the 4 tiny projectors by their suction cup mountings underneath the wood laminate desk. She puts the black, thin rectangular motion sensor onto the centre of the back on the underside of the desk and rotates it to face at a 45-degree angle to the ground so it will pick up her hand gestures. Once that's done, she turns one the projectors one by one and waits a few seconds for them to warm up and become bright enough to see an image.

The beams of light all aimed at each other bring hope to the other that they are only a mere amount of time away from changing their futures for the better.

"She's actually doing it." The cat whispers to the ferret. Erin picks it up but doesn't react as she waits for the images to sharpen and focus automatically. It takes another 10 seconds for this happen. What she sees, or is almost literally in the middle of, is a login screen requiring a username, password and voice recognition. The others can see this as well; the squirrel grabs something from his pocket.

"Here." He offers his mobile phone to her.

"Do you have the login?" Erin whispers.

"Yeah, use it." He insists. She reads the note displayed on the phone, the first line is the username and the bottom line a password that would have been near impossible to guess with all of the symbols it contained. Using the only other piece of hardware on the workstation, a wireless keyboard, she slowly types in the username and password, which to her surprise, it accepts.

"I need the voice recognition." Erin whispers back.

"It's on there, go into the voice recorder." The squirrel whispers. "I know someone who knows someone's father who works here. That's how I got it if you were wondering."

If he was trying to impress Erin, he didn't receive any gratification from the raccoon. She plays the voice recording at a very low volume which the system somehow picks up despite her not seeing a microphone, in any case, she is in. She finds the list of everyone's scores, only identifiable by their ID number. Erin finds her number and checks her score with anticipation. She sees her score and can't help but smile at the relief of all of the hard work she has done to yield such a positive result.

"Here, your turn." Erin says, shuffling along the floor away to under the opposite cubicle in a musical chairs like act as everyone shifts positions to get their turn.

"What'd you get?" The cat asks.

"What I wanted." Erin answers.

"Which was…"

"What I wanted." She repeats.

"Don't want to say, huh." She replies.

"You go, try and do this quickly so we can get out." Erin instructs quietly. She got straight A+'s but she doesn't want to act self righteous in getting the highest score to people whom she guess aren't quite as smart, otherwise they wouldn't be here trying to change that.

"Which university does that get you into?" The cat asks as she tries to find her scores.

"I don't want to say." Erin repeats again.

"Just say." She urges casually. Erin catches onto what she's thinking.

"You want to go to university with me?" Erin asks.

"Which one is it?" She inquires again.

"Let me be the first to urge not to do that, your education should be about you not about me." Erin whispers back. "You've only met me for 5 minutes and you're going to change your path based on what I do?"

"Not the same course of course but… yeah, I'll admit it. I'm blown away, we'd all like to have a friend like you." The cat answers back. Erin is really torn between cruelly rejecting them and going into her shell like usual or allowing them to join her at her first preference Oxford.

"This is not because I can pick a lock, is it?" Erin asks.

"Hurry up, just say where you're going, I want to be able to change my results as well." The ferret replies.

"Oxford." Erin replies succinctly. "There, change your applications."

The cat looks at her after hearing the snide toned comment, but she slowly turns back to the screen and begins to changer results from A's, B's and C's into a high enough score to get into a course at Oxford, but not suspiciously high so she won't have too much expected of her.

"Here, go." The cat says as she leaves the under-the-desk workstation. She swaps with the ferret who begins his turn at artificially inflating his results. As he's changing his scores, Erin catches a small glimpse of a flashlight being switched on and flashed at the roof, which paralyses the others.

"Time's up." The squirrel whispers, but Erin doesn't see it that way.

"No it's not. I'll distract the security guard whilst you guys finish off. Leave the way you came, and meet me at Kensington tube station in an hour." Erin quickly plans out.

"What if you're caught?"

Erin doesn't answer that question but instead stands up in full view of the security guard to catch his attention. She shields her eyes from the blinding torchlight with her gloved hands.

"You there!" The guard shouts. "You're trespassing on government property!"

Erin is silent as she moves away from the centre of the cubicles and out into the side isle so that she is not confronted in the vicinity of the more helpless group stuck underneath the desk.

"You're under arrest for trespassing inside a secure government building." The guard announces. "You have the right to remain silent, but I must warn you that anything you say or do may be used later as evidence, do you understand?"

"Wait, you're a cop?" Erin asks in false surprise.

"This is a government building ma'am." The policeman says as he shows his badge and gets out a set of handcuffs, which are willingly put on the young female raccoon. The policeman then escorts her out of the room side by side and down the stairs. Everything is as they both wanted. Erin looks straight in front of her and walks down slowly, acting completely subdued to comfort the police officer that she won't run away. They get down to the ground floor with everything calm and peaceful in the night. She catches a glimpse of the police car outside with the flashing lights on, and realises that she has to make her move now. The handcuffs fly off her wrists and she quickly tries to lock them onto the escorting officer. She locks it around the left wrist easily before he can react, but the right one required a lot more power to restrain the stronger officer for just a brief split second to lock up his hand from behind his back. Erin kicks out at his legs to bring him to the ground and to prevent him from getting up easily. Erin turns in the opposite direction to go back up the stairs and away from the two officers standing outside with their car. She barely sees them back it through the door before she's gone out of their sight.

Erin races up the stairs two at a time; the natural adrenaline rush flowing through her but in a controlled way so that instinct does override logical thought process. She goes up to the very top to the roof, checking along the way to see that they can't be seen as the police inevitably pass straight by. She waits at the top for the police to catch up a little, she can't let them return to where they found her.

"Up here!" She taunts unnaturally, she never thought she'd be in a position to taunt the police but right now it's the right time to do so.

"There she is!" One of them shouts as they get near. When they are only a flight of stairs away, she bursts open the door leading to the roof. She double checks the contents of the ground and moves onto the edge, picking her landing spot. She is going to jump from 4 stories high. As soon as she hears them bust open the door, she jumps; in order for them to see her but not enough time to stun her. She lets gravity take over, staying in the air for over a second before she grabs onto the top of a lamppost shaft and cleanly uses it to slow down her fall and slide to the bottom all in one go. Her legs compress as they land to completely arrest her fall before she lets go and walks off along with the population as if no one around her saw anything. The police look over the edge, but they are trapped from up there since none of them can go close to replicating her efforts.

Erin walks calmly but also quickly to the nearest tube station so she can get off the street level and takes the next train so she can get out of the immediate area. She rides it before changing lines twice in order to get back to the closest station to her home, Kensington. As she rides the train, she realises that the itch she has been waiting so long to scratch has finally gone away for now. In the place of desperate need, deep intrinsic gratification and satisfaction along with feeling proud fill the void it left behind; the by-products of a heist. She arrives exactly 58 minutes after she said she would be here. She steps off the train and instantly sees them all leaning against the wall and chatting together. When one of them turns around and sees her, they all quieten down and watch her walk so casually towards them that it makes the group of 4 rather uneasy about how remorseless she looks.

"You made it." The squirrel remarks.

"Yeah. I'm here."

"How'd you do it?" Asks the ferret, Erin gives a brief 1 minute description of what happened which blows their minds.

"You jumped off the top of the building?" The cat asks in surprise.

"Yes.

"And you didn't get injured."

"Yeah."

The cat begins to involuntarily chuckle to herself to try and relax herself.

"You expect us to believe that?"

"It doesn't matter, you're all here. I'm here. We're not in custody, that's what matters." Erin reminds them.

"Sam." The squirrel says out of the blue.

"What?"

"My name's Sam. She's Karen, he's Toby and the quiet one's Elena." The squirrel introduces.

"I'm not quiet." The possum replies in a rare outburst of fury, but she retreats to being timid in a few seconds to turn to Erin. "But, socially not that great so… I don't like to talk much."

"It's nice to meet you all." Erin says as she heads for the stairs to go home.

"See you at Oxford." Sam replies back. Erin turns around and stops.

"Did you all decide to go to Oxford?" Erin asks exasperatingly, it makes them all go quiet. It takes a few seconds for one of them to decide to cut the silence.

"Yes, okay. We did and, please, do not take this the wrong way but… you're… amazing. And I'm not just taking for myself here…" Toby begins to explain.

"Are you thieves, or, do you want to be thieves? Because…" Erin tries to warn, but they are hooked, forget line and sinker.

"With you at the top we could, I mean we're not much." Toby answers.

"Listen, as good as you think I am, that doesn't mean that I necessarily want to be a thief full time. I value my education, that's why I went to break in tonight and I'm sure that's the reason you came as well since you were probably not doing it for kicks." Erin replies. She thinks about herself and the immensely pleasurable feeling of completing a heist she felt. She briefly wonders about whether this feeling will turn into an addiction, and reveal herself to be a kleptomaniac as she first thought when she felt that itch.

"Yeah… well. See you at Oxford." Karen says.

"Yeah…" Erin pauses, thinking about what she said and wondering how it might have hurt their feelings. To dowse the still burning flames of amateurs hooked on her talent. "I'll see you then."

She walks out of the station, checking over her shoulder every now and then to see if she is being followed either by the group or by any police operation, in which case it would have been a very long night. It didn't turn out that way, she walked along the streets she knows too well and entered into the small, attached house. She gets in the doorway before checking her surroundings again. When she completes her check, she knew that she would be hearing from them very soon. From that, they caught up again at university to Erin's surprise and slight reluctance to meet them again. By that time, going out on the weekend for Erin meant pulling a heist. She'd leave as the sun was going down and be home by the morning having smuggled something inside if it was successful.

She quickly realised that, even though the group she met that night didn't even know each other that much or kept in very close contact, they had the same idea. They all had accumulated knowledge of the wrong kind, the same ideas and knowledge used by Erin. She didn't like this at all, they were becoming clingy like a piece of gum that can't be removed from the sole of a shoe. However, if they were going to hang around her, even if it was from a distance she found out, she probably needed to put them to use. She had 4 clean slates to work with; 2 guys, 2 girls. At first they went for a better view, doing nothing apart from watching Erin as she instructed. Gradually, and as they became closer, they'd perform the menial and small tasks like reconnaissance with Erin still handling the bulk of it all. When they realised that there was an abandoned shop on the outskirts of town, Toby decided to establish some sort of hide out there. Erin deduced that he was the smartest out of the four but that isn't to say that he's a genius. He had an eye for the details in the plans but was less so when it came to the bigger picture; so Erin was surprised and yet not at the same time when he suggested it. Upon a quick inspection by the group they decided to furnish it with anything that they could find. Later, this was upgraded with a portion of their scores to buy equipment to make more specialised and customised equipment, which in it self became a secondary more legitimate operation.

Over time, the loot began to pile up, she didn't have anything to spend it on and it was becoming cluttered in her tiny apartment, so she had a brilliant idea. She would hide everything in plain sight, not directly in view but easy to access. She first stored it all inside a cereal box; cash, products, anything of value. But even a large pack wasn't enough to contain it. The cereal box became cash only and anything metallic was stored in a plastic ice-cream tub inside the freezer. She knew that this is not the best hiding spots for either of these things, but in order to counter this she made sure that she wouldn't be stolen from in the first place. Firstly, a block of student accommodation flats isn't the first place a thief would think items of excessive value would be and secondly, everything was always locked when possible.

Yet these small security measures could not do enough to protect the result of all of her hard work. But with Alex with her now, perhaps they might be able to get back, with a lot of interest.


	20. Return to Sender

**Chapter 20 – RTS**

**Near Oxford, London, England. 6:40am, 6****th**** November 2032.**

Alex's reaction is as far away as can be from what Erin expected. Instead of some further questioning or even a sense of betrayal, Alex moves forward and in one motion, hugs her. Erin is taken back by the gesture, firstly by it's sheer unlikeliness and then once she realises why he's doing this, puts her arms around him, although not as tightly as Alex is. It's is a massive sense of release for Alex to hear this, not that all of her stuff is stolen; but now that he knows of her part time occupation, he thinks that together they can finally beat back the menace and bullying of Le Paradox. Alex lets go after collects himself and steps back with a big smile on his face.

"Why are you so happy?" Erin asks out of confusion.

"It's just… I don't feel alone." Alex says through the immersive happiness.

"What about your gang?" Erin asks out of even more confusion.

Alex doesn't have an immediate answer; perhaps it's because the answer he wants to give is self centred. He prevents himself from doing that and instead walks away into the bedroom area only a few metres away. It's hard to get away in such a cramped space.

"Don't you trust them?" Erin continues on.

"I do, but…"

"It's difficult, isn't it?" Erin replies. "The jump's too high, one moment you were traveling around the world scrapping pennies and the next you have millions with some guy prodding you to get to the top fast. I would like to say we need to have a rest, but all of my stuff's been stolen and I'm not tolerating that happening for one second. You should call that Antonio guy to see if he knows anything."

"Good thinking." Alex answers as he takes out his phone to dial.

"Listen, I need to know where Le Paradox is hiding or he's going to tear me down." Alex demands, but Antonio is more focused on something else.

"About the paintings, I'm sorry it didn't work out for you."

"Can you find me his location?" Alex asks.

"I don't have the knowledge to do what you are asking, and if I did, you can't find him. In my experience he will find you before you find him." Antonio says. "Also, your 'diamond merchant' has informed me that the diamonds you gave to him have helped him immensely. They have been placed into the biggest and most secure diamonds vault of which he knows the location, the contents of the vault is what you will be stealing."

"When will I have to do this?" Alex asks.

"I'll inform you of the details at a later date." Antonio answers.

Someone knocks at the door, causing Alex to terminate the call abruptly. Erin turns around to look and turns back to Alex and signals him to keep quiet. She turns around and picks up Alex's cane in the process and sneaks over to the door to look through the little peephole in the door.

"Alex, it's me, Matt." He says through the door. Erin quickly unlocks the door as Alex moves over to the door to greet his friend. Erin opens the door to see the rat she hasn't seen for about 10 years, it's a massive reunion for him, they such a good time that day.

"Have you seen the news?" Matt asks. To which Alex nods. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure. Haven't seen you in a while." Erin replies.

"I know. I guess you've read that book cover to cover now." Matt asks.

"Enough times." Erin answers.

"Right." Matt replies before looking at the open kitchen cupboards, wondering why they are all opened up.

"We got robbed." Erin answers, pre-empting the question from Matt.

"I'm sorry for us to drag you into this Erin, it's not what we hoped for." Matt apologises.

"It's okay." She replies.

"No, It's not okay, we're going to get everything back." Matt promises. "What exactly was stolen?"

"Matt." Alex interjects. "She's a thief too."

"Really? I thought you said…"

"Have a guess what was stolen." Alex adds.

"I get it." Matt answers before giving a smile to Erin. "That means you can both help." Getting back to business and putting down his backpack on the coffee table.

"With what?" Alex asks.

"Getting back at Jeremy and steal back your stuff of course." Matt replies with enthusiasm as he sets out his laptop and turns it on. "You remember how he said that he made ThiefNet again?"

"Yeah." Alex answers.

"ThiefNet exists? I thought…" Erin asks.

"It does." Matt answers, showing her the front page. "Alex is the hottest property on here."

"I didn't ask for anyone in the first place, besides we don't need anyone anymore because we have Erin now." Alex replies.

"Are you in?" Matt asks for confirmation.

"Yeah, I'm in."

"Cool, so I ran a reverse trace on the website's IP and found where it's running off. It's in a server farm in northern Finland where the sub-arctic temperatures can keep them cool." Matt explains.

"So is that where we're going now?" Alex asks.

"Yeah, but it's a legitimate business which I'm sure he doesn't own. He must be secretly hogging some of the server space. Anyway, if we want to find out where he is… we have to go to Finland." Matt explains.

"Do you have a plan?" asks Erin.

"I'm ahead of you on that one." Matt answers as he types away at his keyboard. Alex starts thinking of the bigger picture.

"Hey, where's Tyson and Jess?"

"They're taken care of." Matt says.

"Where are they?" Alex asks.

"A safehouse, trust me, I've got everything under control here. Now," Matt begins to further explain the details of his plan, he uses Erin's projector to display it on the wall to her dismay.

"You hacked into my projector." Erin complains.

"This is the place." Matt begins to explain, it looks mostly like a rolling green grass hill from the aerial shot matt has displayed. The only way they can tell that it's not just a picture of nature is the road that leads up to it and the small outbuildings that look like guard outposts.

"A highly secure server farm with an electrified razor wire fence that's 4 metres high. The only entrance is along the road and that's always manned by at least two armed guards and always watched by security cameras 24 hours a day, that way is not going to work. Now, I've found a way to get in but it's very difficult and highly dangerous but it's the quickest way in. You see, the downside of every server farm is the power usage, this one is completely sustainable from the nearby wind turbines, this is how we get in." Matt explains.

"By destroying them to cut the power?" Alex asks more in hope than anything. Erin thinks she knows what the answer is; Matt switches to a new slide.

"These turbines are 85 metres high from the centre and they are located 2 kilometres away from the building." Matt explains. "You two are going to parachute in over the fence and land inside undetected."

"You're insane." Erin replies. "That's insane."

"The glide ratio on the parachutes is 30 to 1. You'll easily make it over the fence." Matt explains. "Now, once you land you have to make it to this emergency chute to get inside for they find you, next you'll go along the shaft which leads straight into the server room. When you get inside, you'll plug in this USB into one of the towers which will allow me to run a trace on the location of where Jeremy uploaded the web site from and most likely, where he hides."

"Then how to we get out?" Alex asks, the same question rides on Erin's mind as well.

"That part is a little trickier. Assuming that you're still undetected once the operation is complete, you'll go out the way you came and cut your way out of the fence and run right back to the wind turbine where you'll be picked up before heading off to find where Le Paradox is hiding, your stuff should be back before the weekend is done." Matt answers.

"What if we're are detected?" Erin asks.

"Let's not worry about that, okay, it's simple." Matt says.

"You expect us to cut through the electrified fence?" Alex asks hesitantly.

"Yeah, while wearing rubber gloves." Matt answers whilst getting something else out of his backpack, it's another backpack, it's the one he had made for Alex. "You'll need this."

Matt gives the backpack to Alex, Erin feels a little bit jealous about this very elegant piece of kit.

"Nice, did you make that for him?" Erin asks.

"I did the design but I didn't make it, I would have got another one made for you but I haven't heard from my supplier for the last 8 hours, I can't get a hold of him." Matt explains. "Anyway, if we want to Finland before tonight, we've got to catch a flight that leaves in a couple of hours."

"Sounds great Matt, that's why I need you around. Because you keep on working even when everyone else is not." Alex remarks.

"I'm not working, this is my dream to do this, even to see you was enough." Matt complements.

"Before you guys start making out, we should leave." Erin reminds them both before starting to pack a few things.

"Make sure you pack some dark clothing." Matt adds.

"I know." Erin answers.

"Hey Matt." Alex whispers. "Are you sure we can travel on a plane with our canes?"

"I've got that covered as well." Matt adds.

"You are a star." Alex complements again. Matt moves to power down and pack up his computer in anticipation of leaving. Once Erin has stuffed her belongings inside a slightly larger backpack than Alex's technologically advanced one, they three of them make their way down stairs. When they are in the lobby floor, Erin sees the luxury sedan waiting outside for them with the chauffer standing by, ready to open the door for them.

"Matt, you're outdoing yourself." Erin praises; her spirits are lifting.

"Just come on." Matt says, they both follow him to the car, he opens the trunk of the sedan and it shows both Alex's large backpack that he's travelled around the world with and the empty carry case for his cane. Some cheap yellowy foam, the type that's used in fold out mattresses, replaces the dark grey foam insert that he's used to seeing inside.

"It's the only thing I could do on short notice." Matt explains. "I'll put them inside."

They both willingly hand them over to allow for Matt to fit them inside the single case so they can both be protected and hidden, it's a tight fit but it's no trouble for Matt to do. He carefully shuts and locks the case before being the last passenger to get into the backseat of the car with Alex being the unfortunate one being stuck in the middle. He doesn't mind it, he's been stuck in more cramped positions for longer amount so time; none of them being confined in such luxury. He's also taken comfort from the fact that the three of them are together, soon that 3 will turn into five and if Erin's group is located, it'll be nine.

**12:46pm, 10,400m above the Baltic Sea. **

Air travel is a much different experience to that which it was 20 years ago. It's become a much more relaxed service than it used to be during the 2000's. Mobile phone calls are permitted on flights and every aircraft has free Wi-Fi, making it a more attractive option for business customers as they try to compete with the cheaper intercontinental railway networks. However, the allowance of mobile phone use gave rise to a new problem which was dealt with in a typically old fashioned solution. Much like with smoking before it was outlawed, there is a 'quiet section' where talking and other noise inducing acts are not encouraged apart from the relentless whirring of the jet engines muffled partially by the fuselage. This section where they are not seated in on this flight, thanks to the lateness of the booking.

Matt is working away on his computer with his headphones on in the aisle seat, oblivious to anything around him being only focused on the computer screen. Erin sits in the middle, reading the in flight magazine after having exhausted the in flight entertainment system. Alex, on the other hand, is not gorging himself on the offered stimuli; instead he's more satisfied with the natural sight of seeing things from a great height outside the tiny porthole window. He thinks about what parachuting is going to be like, he's never tried it before despite knowing roughly what to do. It's well documented about how his father's use of a parachute made it easier to get from roof to roof aided for both a silent entrance and getaway in the Thievius Raccoonus. It even contained printed diagrams of how it operated and how it worked. The only problem is the first jump jitters, the nervousness that presents itself before anything is done the first time.

He feels his thigh vibrating, not from the movements of the plane, but from his phone. He takes it out and answers it whilst still staring out into the vista.

"Hello?"

"Are you on an aeroplane?" Antonio asks, hearing the background jet engine noise.

"Yes, so?" Alex answers.

"I just want to see how things are going for you. Are you preparing for the diamond heist?" Antonio asks with a sense of anticipation.

"I'm putting that on hold. I want to get Le Paradox off my back before I do anything else." Alex affirms. "How I do that is something that's out of my reach right now."

"How are you going to start?" Antonio asks.

"Find out where he is, there's a place in Finland which may be able to reveal his location, a server farm, but I don't expect you to know what that is." Alex answers.

"That doesn't concern me, what does matter is that this lead exists and as long as it remains a possibility; you have a chance. The very best can make the biggest of gains from the tiniest of chances." Antonio advises.

"That makes sense, anyway, can you try to find where Le Paradox is hiding. I assume you don't do much during the day." Alex asks.

"Like I said, I don't know how much help I can give you but I can try and get someone else onto it."

"Thanks, bye." Alex concludes.

'Wait!" Antonio intervenes. "One last thing, make sure you have something warm with you, Finland's not the warmest climate in the world."

"I have that covered." Alex answers.

"Take care." Antonio concludes.

"Bye." Alex answers. She puts the phone back into his pocket and turns his head to look at the others. Erin looks like she hasn't moved at all since he last saw her, but she's heard the whole thing and wonder secretly who this outsider is dealing with her brother.

"Who was that?" She asks.

"Someone who wants me to succeed." Alex answers.

"Why?" Because you're the infamous Sly Cooper's son." Erin responds quietly so they don't expose themselves in the confined space of the aeroplane. "What does he get out of it, seeing you… succeed?"

"I think he said that it gives him pleasure." Alex responds. "Are you going to tell me something to the contrary?"

"It's an investment." Erin responds.

"Investment?" Alex wonders. "There's no money involved yet. He hasn't asked me to do anything for me except do some heists."

"What's this person is gaining is your trust; you follow his orders. Soon you'll be his lap dog, doing his bidding because he can't." Erin reminds him. "Unless that's what you want."

"What do _you _want?" Alex asks back, he really values his sister's advice. She can sense this, so she gives it a little bit of time to think about it before returning an answer.

"Use this guy to your advantage then leave before you get locked down by anything. Then, work for yourself." Erin answers.

"That doesn't work out well for me, going by myself." Alex adds.

"You've got Matt, he's practically saving you right now." Erin replies. "You've got Tyson and Jess to help you out when we arrive. It's not going to just you any more, you've got people now, a gang. Dad would be proud."

"I guess." Alex says. It's not that noteworthy in his eyes. It's not some grand heist were the takings can't be quantified. This isn't what he dreamed about all those years ago. Then again this is much better than what he dreamed about only a year ago. It's all in the perspective.


	21. Tracer

**Chapter 21 – Tracer**

**50km North of Helsinki, Finland. 5:40pm, 6****th**** November 2032. **

"You are insane Matt." Erin notes over an earpiece once again as she stares up the tall shaft of the large white wind turbine that stretches up into the night. Both Alex and Erin have night vision glasses on to see in the dark without emitting any light themselves. They are both wearing all black clothing black long pants, black long sleeve shirts that hide a black compression shirt underneath to keep them warm without the need for a jumper. Both also wear gloves but only Erin has a beanie on, neither of them wears a mask. They each carry inside their backpack; 3 parachutes, 1 main and 2 reserves. The temperature tonight is around zero, but it feels much earlier than that.

"You're the insane ones actually doing this." Matt retorts. "How far away are you from the base?"

"Not long, you ready?" Alex asks.

"And waiting." Matt replies. He holds a small device which will allow him to uplink the turbines systems directly to Matt for his control. Firstly, they have to get inside. Erin takes point with the lock and breaks it easily. They both move inside, Alex looks for the computer terminal whilst Erin looks for the ladder to get them up to the top.

"Now plug the Ethernet cable into the port on the left and next to that put the UHDMI cable into the RCA converter and then that into the port below the first one." Matt explains, trying to give him the simplest instruction possible for the situation. It helps that Matt showed him exactly what to do earlier so he would be confused with all the computer terminology. Alex puts the wireless transmitter on the bench and puts the two cables into the back and then connects the Ethernet cable to the port before attaching the converter cable. In truth, the video conversion cable is not necessary but Matt never told them that. The real reason he wanted it was for a higher quality video stream.

"I'm done." Alex says. "You get anything?"

"It's working." Matt replies before turning to the front of the vehicle. "Jess, you're up."

Jess leaves the vehicle parked next to another wind turbine in the area and heads towards the target. She's on clean up duty, she'll retrieve the uplink when Matt is finished with it so that no evidence is left behind. Meanwhile, Erin is already a third of the way up before Alex starts his climb up the ladder. There's none of the scary 'don't look down' banter between them, heights don't scare either of them and they are too focused on the task at hand. Matt gets into the wind turbines systems and applies the brakes on the turbine itself, slowly grinding it to a halt so it doesn't hit them as they jump. The blades have almost stopped just as Erin open the top hatch to get out onto the top of the turbine. She keeps a low profile on the top to make sure she's not blown off the top by a gust of wind. She sits and peaks down from the top for her brother to get up to the top. Alex shuts the hatch when he gets outside.

"We're at the top." Alex radios in.

"Okay, here's your landing spot." Matt announces, He highlights a section inside the complex near the emergency hatch for them to see on their displays. It gives them a spot to aim for in the complete darkness. "The chutes will deploy as good as instantly so pull on the strap as you jump."

"Not such a bad location for the first time." Alex comments as he stares across to the server complex.

"Not such a bad location for a 4th jump." Erin replies with a little smile before turning out towards the vista. Alex is a little stunned that she's done this before, but his surprise erodes as he focuses on his own jump.

"Clear to go." Matt announces. Erin jumps first followed shortly by Alex. They begin to glide towards their target in the very chilly and icy air. Matt is monitoring their height and location to see if they'll make it over the fence or not, the worst thing that could happen is if they snag onto the electrified barbed wire and becomes easy prey along with the severe pain it would cause. The first 15 seconds go according to plan. Once they have jumped, Jess unplugs the uplink and takes the cables and the transmitter with her and shuts the door, this automatically returns the turbine to it's default setting, undoing the brakes and allowing it to turn in the very light winds. Alex is fixed on the landing sight in between peaks across to his sister to check on her. In the dark of the night and even with the night vision improvement to his glasses, he doesn't the cause of what happens next. The first he knows of it is a loud shriek from Erin. It hurts his ear a little bit and he's turned invisible too from the shock, but those concerns are very far away as he watches his sister plunge towards the Earth no longer with a working parachute.

"Erin! Pull the reserve!" Alex shouts in hope. He's looking down as he sees her tumbling before she pulls a reserve chute only 25 metres from the ground. She survived the encounter, but she's not going to be infiltrating the server complex at that height.

"I'm alive, I've got it." Erin struggles to reply as she uses her whole strength to control herself. She's flailing her legs out to try and feel for solid ground, it will be a hard landing. She feels a little bit of grass against her black lace up utilitarian boots and hopes for solid ground but the grass goes away.

"Landing's going to be hard." She quickly responds. She doesn't have time to stiffen her legs to brace herself against the ground when she hits it. Alex hears her grunt against the pain of the landing. She hasn't landed on her feet since she couldn't spot the ground. She detached the shoot shortly after feeling the ground but the fall was a further 2.5 metres. She tumbles over in the dewy and semi frozen grass beneath her.

"Talk to me Erin! Alex shouts after hearing the landing. She gets up gingerly and tries to locate herself in the barren grassland. She hasn't injured herself badly, the clothing on her back has had more damage than she has, but the most prominent thing she realises is that she's wet. Wet from the ground, but where did the rest of the water come from initially?

"Keep going Alex." Matt assures him. "She's fine."

"Erin, you okay?" Alex asks, only a personal confirmation will do.

"I'm okay, you keep going, you've got this." She encourages to Alex. After such a large shake up to the plan, he needs all the encouragement he can get. "Matt, was my parachute packed correctly?"

"It's not my fault, I'm looking at your vision. Something hit it from the top and made it collapse on itself." Matt explains. "Alex, some else must be watching us, keep an eye out for anything unusual."

"Will do." Alex replies. "Height check."

"You'll clear it easily." Matt quickly responds, focused more on the cause of Erin's failed jump. "Erin, we're coming to get you."

Tyson was going to be driving despite his little experience, but Jess got back before the need arose so she's taken the wheel to locate Erin in the darkness using only a GPS coordinate.

"I got water bombed." Erin realises as she feels the stinging chilliness of the water that has covered most of her body as it hit her and her parachute in mid air.

"Like a fire-fighter would do to fight a forest fire?" Matt asks. She begins to shiver from the coldness and has to move around to prevent her clothes from freezing.

"Yeah." Erin answers as she wipes away some of the water from her face and waits patiently in the darkness to retreat into the safety of the rest of the gang. Alex glides in over the barbwire fence before turning to the left to be parallel to the fence before landing on the level grass ground. He stops quickly and pulls down the parachute so it doesn't fly away and stuffs it into the backpack it came from. Matt has marked the entry location, a bare steel hatch with the stencilled white paint reading 'emergency exit, do not obstruct.' Alex quick hides himself inside the hatch shuts it quietly so it doesn't make any noise. He checks that he hasn't lost the tiny USB uplink in his pocket before moving along the steel walkway. It only goes a short distance before there is a set of stairs that plunge into the earth which he follows in the concrete shaft only illuminated by fluorescent lights, meaning he has to turn the night vision off to see where he is going.

"Keep it steady." Matt commands to Jess to make sure his computer and other hand scribbled plans don't go out of the order he has put them in. Jess is taking the route 1 approach to locating Jess since there are no major obstacles in her way, apart from the steep inclines and descends which she drives straight over without letting any of the wheels leave the ground.

"Hey Matt." Tyson exclaims from the front passenger seat.

"What is it?" Matt asks as he holds down his equipment with his hands as they climb over another mound.

"There's something entering the place." Tyson says, but he can't see exactly what they from this distance away. "I think it's two vehicles but I can't see."

"Where did I put it?" Matt asks to himself, searching frantically for something to magnify his view.

"Does anyone see a pair of binoculars or anything to see what they are?" Matt asks as he looks into the foot well in the back of the off road vehicle.

"You mean these?" Tyson asks, holding a pair of binoculars in his hands.

"Yes, gimme." Matt instructs, but Tyson is taking it upon himself to search them out.

"How do you zoom in on these things?" Tyson asks.

"Give them to me." Matt commands forcefully.

"At least say please." Tyson says as he nonchalantly hands them over to Matt who de-escalates his anger. The vehicles are moving into the compound as Matt focuses his picture. The motorised gate slots in behind them, two police vans have arrived at the scene.

"Police?" He asks to himself. "Alex, the police are already here. You need to abort now."

"Not happening, I've just started the uplink. Have you got anything?" He whispers.

"It's started but they'll be inside before it's done, you'll be trapped if you don't leave now." Matt advises before turning to Tyson. "Does anyone have a towel or a jacket?" He asks as they spot Erin right ahead, he's thinking she may need something to warm herself up in.

"I'll get out, stay hidden." Alex replies.

"This is no time to be a hero." Matt hisses. "But if you're staying inside, we'll help you out and if it doesn't work out…."

"Save the goodbyes for later Matt." Alex says as the uplink is still working and still running the trace. Erin gets into the back of the car after Matt shoves his stuff across to make space for her. She's still damp and freezing when she gets inside. However, there is no person who is more worried inside the car than Jess. Interpol are going way too early for an arrest, she didn't tell them to do this. Jess' most important duty right now is not to panic, she is playing a role and must stick to that role for better or for worse.

"Do we leave or wait?" Jess asks to Matt.

"Just wait for now." Matt commands, watching the trace program near completion. The circular progress bar reaches 90%, the orange pie is nearly full. The progress bar fades away and is replaced by a map of the world on Matt's computer. A marker shows up on the map, which it automatically zooms in to.

_Europe… France… Paris._

"He's in Paris." Matt announces.

"I'm heading out now." Alex radios in.

"They're going inside the building." Tyson announces, watching through the binoculars in his hands. "Armed to the teeth."

"Alex, their sending armed police units inside; get out of there." Matt pleads.

"On the move." Alex replies.

2 teams of elite police units all clothed in heavy body armour and weapons to match enter through the main entrance. Tyson counts about 15 of them but the real number is closer to 20. Erin wonders if they really consider her brother to be that much of a threat to them if they need to seriously outnumber and outgun him in every department. Then she realises that the police must have been called in _before_ they arrived, the police could not mobilise that quickly because the nearest police station is several kilometres away. Secretly, she thinks of who is most likely to be the figurative rat amongst them. Her first thought is about who is the going to gain the most from a police raid.

"You said you got water bombed?'" Matt asks, interrupting Erin's thoughts. "Did it come right from the sky?"

"It was like being wiped out by a tidal wave, someone else must be watching us, someone must know what we are doing and called the police." Erin answers.

"Was there a… helicopter or a plane above you that you heard flying towards you at the time?" Matt asks.

"They're going around the side to the emergency hatch." Tyson comments as he keeps tabs on the unfolding situation in the distance.

"Alex, their blocking the emergency hatch." Matt relays to Alex quickly. "Stay out of sight."

"What I don't understand is that, assuming that someone did do this is, why they only got rid of you and not Alex." Jess comments.

"They could have missed." Matt answers. "Timing the drop would be extremely difficult."

"It hit me from the top, if the payload was moving then the water would have been spread out over a larger area. It felt heavy, not like heavy rain or a fog but like a huge rock was thrown on top. I'm sure it was targeted." Erin explains.

"Shouldn't we be moving in closer in case he does make it out?" Tyson asks whilst still looking forward.

"Okay. Jess, drive closer to the exit point but slowly this time, and no lights. Tyson, turn off the interior lights." Matt instructs, he himself lowering the brightness of his computer down to the minimum level. Jess creeps up to the facility, going slightly faster than walking pace. There's still no sign of Alex, either free or captured, and the police that are blocking the exits have not moved from their posts. At 500m away from the fence, Jess stops the car thinking that she could get no closer without alerting them to their position.

"Sit tight." Matt whispers to the group. "We might be here for a while."

They watch and wait, nothing is happening which is worrying regardless of the result. They have nothing to go on to know what to do next, the only thing to do is to wait. They wait for some minutes, some more anxiously than others. The longer they wait, it gives them hope that he's outlasting the police, every second he's not in handcuffs and being loaded into a police van is another small victory for them; it means that he's still got that chance.

Out of the darkness, a blinding light. A fireball rips through the front guard station at the main checkpoint, obliterating the guard post. They all see this, causing them to duck their heads and cover their ears as they wait for the shockwave to pass at the speed of sound. It hits with force, shaking the vehicle a little bit but it's the noise that's the most noticeable. Tyson peaks up to take another peak at the situation.

"He's destroyed the main checkpoint." Tyson says. "Way to go!"

"What are police doing?" Matt asks while Tyson looks.

"They're retreating, they're going to the explosion site." Tyson says.

"The explosion is a distraction." Jess concludes. "He's going to come out the emergency exit soon."

"Now he's killing the guards one by one!" Tyson gleefully announces.

"What?" Erin exclaims. Her brother is not a killer.

"Pass me the binoculars." Matt commands, Tyson hands them over to allow Matt to see the destruction up ahead. The guards are falling to the ground one by one, but it doesn't look like an invisible combatant is killing them.

"They're being shot." Matt says. "They're falling _towards_ the building. Someone else is here."

Jess is more distressed for her fellow officers who have been massacred like fish in a barrel, unable to return fire due to the silent shots fired most likely from a hill to their right.

"Remember Tyson, he said at the start he wanted a zero body count. He wouldn't turn into a homicidal maniac in a split second, he couldn't." Matt reminds him.

"Pass me the binoculars." Erin says to Matt, putting on her night vision glasses and opening the door to go outside and avoid any bright sources of light. She looks through the binoculars over her glasses to get an infrared picture of the scene. The body heat from the guards is slowly fading, but she notices the figure running towards them at a full sprint through the ankle high grass outside of the front perimeter fence. She takes off her glasses and tries to see him using normal light even in this darkness, but she sees nothing.

"I see Alex, he's running towards us." Erin says to the group from outside the vehicle.

"Start the engine." Matt commands. Erin goes back into the vehicle and waits to hear the rush of the raccoon come towards them. It's only when he's 25 metres away that they can hear him.

"Open the door!" He shouts. Erin opens the left rear door and shuffles into the centre just in time for Alex to fit inside and close the door hastily.

"Drive!" The invisible Alex commands desperately, putting on his seatbelt. "Fast!"

Jess obliges, she turns to go along the grassy hills that go along the road as fast as she can control the vehicle at.

"Pass me those infrared glasses." Jess commands, she doesn't want to drive with her lights on. If a helicopter saw them then it would be an impossible task to avoid them in a pursuit. Matt receives the glass from Erin who passes the to the fox's right hand that's stretched backwards, ready to grab them and put them on as soon as she can. She slips them on and now has the bearings she needs to get away. "They'll send reinforcements, I can't drive on the road or we'll be spotted."

Meanwhile, in the backseat, Erin and Matt can hear the heavy breathing of Alex as he recovers from the huge effort of running at top speed for over a minute. More disturbingly, he's still invisible. Erin doesn't know of any bad side effects that Alex has told about staying hidden for too long, but if he's invisible for this long, he must be really scared.

"What happened?" Asks Erin softly and calmly despite their hurried escape. She leans across to at least feel he is there; her left arm touches his right.

"Did the uplink work?" Alex asks to Matt nervously.

"It came from Paris, we got an exact location." Matt answers.

"We have to go their now." Alex advises strongly.

"We need a plan first." Matt reminds him.

"Alex, calm down." Erin asks sensitively. She grasps his hand in hope; she wants to see her brother. Matt is awestruck by the tenderness she is showing, which somehow manages to get Alex to reappear.

"You're back, Alex." Erin says, meaning Alex won't need to use the mirror this time.

"Thanks." Alex replies tiredly, she had help massively in calming him down; even if was only the spark to snap him out of his worry. She cares for him, they care for each other, they have no choice.

"What happened, why are you so scared?" Erin asks as a truck passes by their left.

"There's 15 dead guys now because of me! I…I didn't shoot them!" Alex tries to explain in order to clear his name but the straight faces on the rest of them, except for Jess who's focused on driving, make him realise that they wouldn't think that for a second.

"You're not a killer." Matt replies across from Erin.

"I was hiding next to the front doorway, I took a peak outside and saw all of the guards blocking the entrance. I… I got out my mirror and checked myself quickly… thinking maybe I could go right by them without them knowing. I took another peak, the next thing I hear is an explosion. I waited for the guards to move before I did, I took barely two, just two steps outside when one guy just flopped on the ground. I saw another drop. I jumped straight back behind cover and watched as they all… died right in front of me. I waited until the shooting stopped before I just ran, in fear. I heard no shots, but I don't know if there were any more. I just wanted to run away." Alex recounts, trying to be brave and surpress all of the emotions for long enough to explain it to them. There is one feeling which is overriding them all, something much more basic than any emotion.

"Does anyone have any food? Water?" Alex asks tiredly.

"Hold tight, we're a few minutes away from the safe house." Jess announces as they reach a rural dirt road, no more climbing and descending to do.

"Here." Matt offers, passing a water bottle to Alex who consumes all of it in one go, nearly three quarters of a litre gone in seconds.

"Any more?" Alex asks tiredly. "I need food."

"Does anyone have anything else to feed Alex?" Matt asks loudly to make sure everyone hears his request. At the same time he's wondering why he's so incredibly hungry and thirsty.

"I've got this." Tyson says, showing the brown liquid filled clear drink bottle to Matt. "Protein shake, good for recovery."

"Gimme." Alex insists. He holds out his hand weakly for the sustenance. Matt takes the protein shake from Tyson and gives it to Alex to who he skulls it down with speed, like it was going to save his life; not that it was life saving in the first place.

"Anything else?" Alex asks, Matt wonders if invisibility also makes his stomach bottomless.

"You'll throw up if you eat anything else." Matt cautions. "We're not far away."

"Hang in there." Erin replies kindly, but Alex has already escaped this world and fallen into a deep sleep.


	22. Examination

**Chapter 22 – Examination**

_Take a deep breath… that's it; now here, and here, and finally, here._

The sound reverberates all around the doctor's office as he is lead into another room.

"_There's nothing wrong with your heart, that's normal. Well, Alex, I want you to get on this treadmill here and wear this mask on over your nose and mouth. It will measure your breathing." _

A 12-year-old Alex gets on the treadmill as his foster father puts on the clear plastic mask, which covers his nose and mouth. Two tubes run to the mask to measure intake and outtake.

"_Now, can you run on the treadmill for me?"_

"_Turn it on."_ Alex replies eagerly, he wants to beat the machine, how ever it that can be achieved. The walrus twists the dial and gradually speeds it up to a jog, so that it's not uncomfortable for his son and just to get some early readings; they are all around what he expected to get.

"_I'm going to turn it up faster_."

The whirring of the treadmill becomes more high pitched as it moves faster, Alex manages to keep pace with it even though he's at 90% of his effort.

"_You keep on running until you can run no more."_

This how to beat the machine.

He runs for as long as can which is only for 45 seconds at that pace, his legs are burning and has trouble standing up when he jumps off to the back of treadmill, taking the mask off in the process. Dr. McSweeny reads the results off a computer; they are in the higher end of the normal range for a child of Alex's age. His metabolism is normal, but what he doesn't know is how Alex could just wake up in the morning and consume and entire box of cereal and half a litre of milk in one sitting without feeling sick!

"_What does it say?" _Alex asks through his panting for air.

"_This machine can't find what's wrong with you."_

"_What's wrong with being hungry?" _Asks young Alex, confused at his statement.

"_Do you understand how much food you ate?" _

"_I'm fine, I'm not sick or ill." _Alex answers back.

"_I should have done this earlier." _He comments quietly to himself_. "What did you do before breakfast this morning? Did you sneak outside to go exercise?"_

"_I was sleeping!" _Alex protests_. "I woke up from a bad nightmare and I was hungry, so I ate."_

"_Hmmm." _Tim thinks to himself_. "Okay, we'll have to settle this later, you've got to go to school."_

"_Fine." _Alex says, picking up his schoolbag from the corner next to his foster father's desk. Tim opens the white wooden door to his office only to find himself being stabbed as soon as he does this by the skunk.A second later, it's Alex's turn. It sends him falling into an abyss; black nothingness expanded out in all directions. The world is falling, or is it moving towards him? All he sees is the world approaching him from the top, like he's entered the atmosphere from space and landed directly in some bushes at night. He can hear some distant waves lap at the shore nearby as he meanders through the low-density shrubbery and trees. Ahead, he sees a clearing but before he gets near it, a pair of lights flashes on so he hides behind a tree. Alex takes a peak as the car lights pass by and sees the black vans with the police markings on the side; instantly he knows where this is and what is about to happen next. Not caring for his own safety he tries to run to save his parents. However, he is pulled back with infinite strength by his shirt by someone else hiding in the bushes.

"Why do you chase what is not attainable?" Jeremy whispers whilst gazing at the scene about to unfold. Alex tries to pull harder to get away from him as well as hitting him as hard as he can with his cane, but he absorbs all of the blows without reacting at all and without injury.

"There are fifty elite units out there, and you think you can save them from that?" Jeremy asks.

"Let go!" Alex shouts. He realises that some of the special forces have trained their lights on him.

"What are you doing? Come on, we have to escape." Jeremy whispers before letting go of Alex and running off at full speed into the bushes. Alex sees the special forces group trained on him with their high powered torches shining brightly into Alex's face which blind him.

* * *

"Say ah" The dentist instructs as the white walled room appears from the total white ness with the brightest thing being the overhead lamp which shines onto Alex's forced open mouth. The dentist holds a metal clamp and brings it inside Alex's mouth and reaches right to the back of his mouth. The pain the raccoon feels is incomprehensible as a wisdom tooth is pulled out in one go. He tries to bite down as hard as possible to cope with the pain and he's been strapped down in order to not move but he struggles against all of the restrictive devices on him. The dentist takes off his facemask and looks at the tooth in triumph.

"It wasn't so bad, was it?" Jeremy asks rhetorically to Alex. "You're feeling better now, no?"

The pain is dying down considerably with each second, so he is feeling better but he doesn't want to admit that to him.

"We need to feel some pain, without it we'd be monsters like Clockwerk, robots without a soul." Jeremy says as he puts the tooth into a little plastic jar. "Without pain, there is no reward."

Jeremy gets up in his pale green coloured apron and white button up shirt and black pants and walks away to leave the tiny office. The shackles holding Alex at the wrists and ankles suddenly come loose, allowing him to chase after the skunk in haste. Alex bursts through the door as fast as possible.

* * *

He flies through the air, plummeting towards the steep decline below covered in fresh snow. He looks up to the helicopter that hovers right from where he fell out then back down to his feet, where he finds a snowboard attached to his feet which is facing perpendicular to his direction. So he twists around 90 degrees to land on the snow before picking up considerable speed with the cane positioned on his backpack to be vertically positioned for aerodynamic reasons. He slaloms a little bit to wash off some speed so he doesn't loose control. The slope becomes a little flatter and becomes narrower with pine trees flaking each side. Out of those trees comes a skier racing out to join Alex.

"Fine weather outside." Jeremy remarks as the cloudless day on the snow covered slopes. He's no longer got a suit on, but now with dark green body hugging suit that covers every part of his body except for his head, hands, feet and tail.

"Challenge you to a race? First to the bottom." Jeremy asks as Alex just watches him, wondering how to get around this. They approach the end of the flatter section and over the crest they see a series of flags set up like a slalom course. There's even a grandstand crowd gathered, waving their flags of many nations on either side.

"How convenient." Jeremy shouts over the sound of the snow. They both pick up speed as the incline becomes steeper. Alex prepares to turn for the first corner whereas Jeremy plows on straight, missing the first checkpoint. Alex sees his failure to do the course and decides that all he has to do is pass through all of the gates to win. He slowly passes through the gates, getting more confident towards the end before crossing the finish line where Jeremy has already taken off his skis, waiting for Alex to finish.

"You're too slow." Jeremy shouts over the roar of the crowd.

"You cheated, you didn't pass through the gates." Alex replies.

"I didn't say this was a slalom race, did I?" Jeremy responds back. "You weren't paying attention; details matter Alex."

"He's right Alex." Erin says, like a voice from the heavens that echoes around and resonates with the world. Alex nevertheless runs straight at Jeremy to tackle him to the ground.

* * *

He tries to grasp where the skunk is, but he finds himself underwater; like the snow has all instantly melted melted. He looks up and quickly swims hurriedly to the surface, where he discovers that it's raining heavily. Alex begins the difficult task of treading water to keep himself up. He can't do it for very long, he's not the strongest swimmer and he's trapped in the middle of a lake. The nearest source of rescue he sees is a small row boat that is being rowed calmly toward with by an individual wearing a bright yellow raincoat with a hood. Alex stops treading water and slowly begins to swim over to the boat; by swimming it's more of a mixture of freestyle and dog paddling. The exhaustion is unbearable so he is extremely grateful to reach this small wooden rowboat and hang onto the edge for a few seconds before dragging his soaked body into the boat, heaving with every breath from the physical exertion.

"Are you okay?" The rower asks, taking off his hood and leaning over the edge; guess who.

"You!" Alex shouts.

"Where do you think you'd go next? You can't swim to safety." Jeremy reasons. Alex tries to push Jeremy into the water so he can steal the rowboat for himself and let the skunk fend for himself. But the skunk is like an immovable object, no amount of effort Alex can muster seems to move him an inch from his position from sitting on the single wooden board, calmly rowing the boat along the lake.

"Why is your first reaction always to fight? Can't you tell it is getting you nowhere." Jeremy remarks as he turns the boat around to shore towards the pier in the distance.

"Whereas…" Jeremy says overing one of the oars to Alex as well as shifting over to one side to let him share some of the space. "If we work together, it works out for both of us."

Alex is naturally hesitant at this offer.

"The rain is merciless, I am not. Work with me instead of against me." Jeremy instructs, ready with his oar, waiting only for Alex to join in. He does want to get away from this expanse of water and get onto dry land. So, joined with a common purpose, they begin to row together. They row faster than any one of them could do by themselves and it seems to not take that long at all for them to reach the pier and reach the shore. They row over to the shore and get out of the boat.

"Help me turn it over so it doesn't fill with water." Jeremy asks and Alex helps, once again, working together in the pouring rain. Once the rowboat is turned over, Jeremy looks over to the cabin with smoke rising out of the chimney in such an inviting way, warmth is but metres away. Alex knows where this is, but is extremely hesitant in letting the skunk anywhere near this place. By himself, Jeremy walks towards the cabin with seemingly nothing to impede him.

"Don't go in there!" Alex warns as he moves in front of the skunk to block him off. Jeremy, however, is unaffected and walks straight ahead; pushing Alex along with him like Alex weighs nothing and applies no force to him. Alex steps out of the way, knowing how futile his efforts are as the skunk stands opposite the doorway with a fist ready to knock on the door. He knocks once but as soon as he touches the wooden door, he is electrocuted and has to withdraw his hand from the house. It is the first glimmer that Alex's mind is beginning to fight itself; it won't allow Jeremy to traverse in such important and cherished memories.

"Can you open it, please?" Jeremy asks.

"No! I'm not letting you in there!" Alex shouts in defiance.

"Your choice." Jeremy says before pulling out a gun and shooting Alex right in the chest. It flings him back all the way into the water.

* * *

The fabric seat of a car catches him, sitting inside with a seat belt on and a blue business shirt and work pants with the top button undone. His hair is well groomed and he's no longer wet. This car is stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway in the morning, and he is in the driver's seat.

"We're going to be late." Erin remarks, sitting in the front passenger seat wearing similar work related attire to Alex except her shirt is white and has her hair pulls back into a ponytail. "We wouldn't want to your first day of work, would we?"

"Um, no, but the traffic; I can't do anything about that." Alex complains.

"It's not that difficult."

Alex wheels his head around to the rear passenger seat and finds that Matt is sitting in the back; dressed much more casually in a t shirt and shorts as well as a baseball cap, he's dressed like a child.

"We just have to fly." Matt explains.

"Fly?... cars can't fly." Alex replies.

"Why not?" Matt responds. "Look."

Matt takes a toy car and begins holding it out in the back seat and pretending to make it fly whilst; making sounds like _whoosh_ and _wrrrrrrr_ to simulate it flying. Alex turns back at this childish act.

"Look" Matt says but Alex is facing forward towards the stationary traffic that's there for miles on end.

"Look dad." Matt says.

_Dad? That means Erin is…_

What he's more shocked by is that the toy car is floating around in the back of the car by itself like Matt said it could do; he's still making the sound effects as it floats around in the back.

"Wha?" Alex exclaims in confusion.

"Stop doing that, you making dad upset." Erin warns, to which the toy car now obeys the laws of gravity. But the sound of the car falling is much louder than anticipated. Alex half shields himself and shuts his eyes from the sound, when he opens them, he's sitting as a desk with his manager standing over a huge pile of forms he has just thrust onto his desk in his tiny cubicle.

"Get these done by noon."

Alex looks up and sees who it is, the suit gives it away, then looks down to the pile of paperwork. Then he feels the cold chill of a shackle that's attached to his ankle to prevent him from moving away from his desk. The skunk walks away down the line corridor of desks in the dead silence, not even a sound from people typing; a pin drop would be louder. He takes the first bundled piece of paper and looks at the title. He realises what they are, these are dossiers of previous heists he has done. They contain all of the information about them, about what he did and how he completed the heists and in some cases abandoned them; but he doesn't know what to do with them. Alex stands up to see if there is anyone he can talk to; there is no one roaming the hallways so he checks to see where his colleagues are. Jess it to his right, Erin is to his left and Tyson is directly opposite.

"Um… what am I meant to do with these?" Alex whispers across to the three of them.

"You're meant to take the files and correct them Alex, we've been though this before." Erin reminds him.

"What mistakes?" Alex asks, there are no grammatical mistakes at all contained in any of the files.

"Yours." Erin answers. Alex sits back down and flicks through one of the files; there are photos, detailed descriptions of plans and entries as well as equipment listings. He reads through the first file intently before taking out a red pen to correct the mistakes such as timing, poor equipment or just luck. This is his work now, to figure out what he has done wrong in the past and correct them, at least in thought. With each confrontation of his own mistakes, Alex becomes more confident in admitting their existence to himself and correcting them. He goes into the zone, the zone where stuff gets done and everything else is faded out; immersing himself in the worlds portrayed on those files. In hindsight, all of the little mistakes or errors he has found were stupid mistakes; mistakes he would not make now, at least that's what he hopes for. He finishes the entire pile before looking at the time, with only 4 minutes having passed.

"Done already?" Jeremy asks, standing right behind Alex without him knowing.

"Yes." Alex replies. Jeremy looks behind him before turning back to Alex.

"Perfect, then I've got a few more for you to do." Jeremy replies before walking away. The ground begins to rumble, the exterior windows bow violently before shattering but the shackle on Alex's leg is holding firm. From the outside, flying in like a gale force wind, comes thousands and thousands of bound files and paperwork from all directions. People begin to shield themselves as everyone begins to drown in paper. Alex tries to break free, but the shackle does not let go, he pulls desperately as Jeremy disappears effortlessly into the corridor as papers fly chaotically around. Alex becomes buried in papers containing his mistakes; it becomes pitch black. He waits until the papers stop flying in before trying to push the top away just so he can get some light. He tries to lift the papers for all his strength, he pushes as hard has he can, but he is taken away from the scenario before can complete it.

* * *

**45km North of Helsinki, Finland. 1:32am, 7****th**** November 2032.**

Alex races back into the real and present world. He sits up straight away, hyperventilating rapidly with his eyes darting around to assess the room for any attackers. With a weird relief, he realises it was yet another murderous nightmare where he is killed by his archenemy. He flops back down to look up at the bare wooden ceiling with exposed beams. He grabs the cushion his head is resting on and puts it over his head and pushes down. He forcibly screams as loudly as he can into the cushion, muffling the noise to make sure no one wakes up. When he runs out of breath, he stops and tosses the cushion aside.

_How is he in my head?!_

"Pssst." A voice whispers across from another couch. Alex rubs his eyes and tilts his head to the right to see who it is. He doesn't know who's sleeping where, because he was asleep before they even arrived.

"Why were you screaming?" She whispers out of frustrated curiosity because had been woken up by Alex. He sees that it's Jess covered under a dark coloured blanket, not that she can see him.

"Nightmare, I think." He whispers back to her, trying to unnecessarily conceal himself.

"You know, you're probably… and don't take this the wrong way… but you're probably the most weak minded criminal I've seen." Jess says.

"I know." Alex replies, but he thinks of a cheeky way to get out of it. "How many criminals have you met?"

"Lost count." She replies casually. "I mean you're probably the most skilled thief I know, but your head isn't up to the same speed."

"Nightmares don't make me weak." Alex protests, wondering about her statement and coming back to visual sight again. "I have a lot on my plate ok, it all comes together in new and exciting… violent and painful ways, inside my head."

"Give me an example." Jess whispers not at all affected by his emotions.

"At the end of every nightmare, everyone I care about is murdered in front of me, and I'm always killed last. I've been: shot, stabbed, drowned, fallen, poisoned, there's too many ways to list." Alex says as he makes a small chuckle more to cope with all of this gruesome detail. "Every single time it feels like the first time, I am plagued by death. I see it in my head more frequently than I want to, and now, people are dying in front of me."

"You don't have nightmares all the time?" Jess answers for him.

"Not all the time, but each time I'm shaken by them. I know that there not real after I wake up… but, there's this nagging and gnawing in the back of my head that pushes me into deep and inescapable worry. Only when that, evil, sick, twisted skunk is gone, not dead, gone; I think they'll go away." Alex explains.

She was ill prepared to face the raw nature of his explanation, he is incredibly open about himself like he has no one else to turn to at this moment. Of course, for Charlotte, this only increases the knowledge about this criminal which she can use to fill up his file. But this… this is not what the hard-line, tough guys of the world act like; then again he is a different class of criminal altogether. The thieves in his family tree have always been well-educated, sophisticated, embodied with swagger and above all, the best at what they do. The raccoon lying a few metres away from her does not fit that profile. He seems smart; all criminals that aren't arrested are smart. He has talent, he has skill but she thinks that he doesn't know what to with it. Is he still a threat? Yes. Is he as much of a threat as she thought he was? Definitely not. Is what he is doing wrong?

Legally yes, but does he deserve punishment? That's a dangerous question to ask, especially for an officer younger than Alex. Does he need to be punished for crimes yet to be committed? She's sure that he will do many heists if left unchecked, large supercomputers would agree with her too. However, the only thing she can do is to stay hidden, to stay undercover until an opportunity presents itself.

"I'm going back to sleep, don't scream again please." She asks as she adjusts her position to make herself more comfortable.

"I'll try not to." Alex replies.

Time passes, but sleep is beyond Alex Cooper. In the lengthy night, he fed himself no less than twice and ambled around outside for some fresh cold air. He even climbed onto the roof just to see the stars over the trees, all of this without making a sound. The stay on the roof didn't last long, he was reminded of how cold it was outside very quickly as his body heat and clothing could not repel the icy breeze. He checks his phone, no missed calls and no messages, and decides to go onto ThiefNet, just to explore what it is. Even with his limited technical knowledge and thanks to some user friendliness modifications my Matt, it's as simple to access as a normal website. Being both curious and somewhat narcissistic, he searches the keyword 'Cooper' in the forum archives, which have somehow been recovered by Jeremy. In it he finds a bunch of threads, the most prominent one talking about his disappearance and arrest.

_Stealth32 wants to chat with you._

Alex quickly shuts down this distraction.

_Synd1c4t3J wants to chat with you._

_Bits+Bytes4 wants to chat with you._

_N0 0NE wants to chat with you._

Alex shuts down all three of these distractions, but he wonders briefly about his apparent underground fame due to the spreading done by Matt of his far off need for someone else in his crew.

_TheNextCooper disabled chat._

Is that the username Matt chose for him? Alex thinks that it's sort of fitting for him but it's a bit too…vulgar.

_Super Mod: SpexGuy wants to chat with you._

That's odd, Alex thinks; not the username but that disabling chat hasn't done what it's supposed to do.

_SpexGuy: Alex, it's me, Bentley._

Bentley, the name shoots out at him when he realises who it is. He hasn't heard from him in ages, but he's more worried about why he has chosen to contact him now and what is he about to say.

_SpexGuy: We never had this conversation._

_TheNextCooper: Understood._

_SpexGuy: I stress that you do not have to do what I am asking of you, only do this if you feel that you are ready and prepared. _

_TheNextCooper: I understand._

_SpexGuy: Again, this is something I implore you not to do unless you feel ready. And do not tell anyone of this except for your sister._

_TheNextCooper: I understand._

_SpexGuy: Go to this location (51.7528366,0.30218208), write it down, as I will not repeat this message. When you get there, there will be some information you will find buried there. Some information that I've compiled that you will need if you really want to 'succeed' your father. _

Alex looks around for a pen and paper but can't see one in the darkness. He thinks about writing it electronically on his phone but thinks that information of this sensitivity and exclusivity should not be vulnerable to hacking. He quietly moves around the room and searches in draws and cupboards for the writing implements as he reads Bentley's message.

_TheNextCooper: What information?_

_SpexGuy: Too sensitive to say on here. Only do this with Erin and only Erin. No one else can come with you. Make sure no one follows you._

_TheNextCooper: How would I be ready? _

_SpexGuy: Be prepared in that once you know what's in there, everything will change. Time is against me and I fear that if you don't know what I know then you won't know it at all._

Alex finds a pencil and scrolls back up to write down the coordinates one a scrap of paper which he places inside his pocket underneath his mirror.

SpexGuy: _You two stick together, okay. Together you'll be unstoppable. I know you will._

_TheNextCooper: Thanks._

_Super Mod: SpexGuy has left chat._

A choice has arisen from this message. Go to this location and find out more about who he is and what the legacy of being a Cooper really is, or go to Paris and continue the pursuit of Le Paradox. He thinks, why not both? He and Erin with go to this place and find out more about themselves and the rest will head to Paris to confront Le Paradox. He slowly types in the precise coordinates into a world map on his phone to see where it is, and finds that it's in Eastern England, north of London. It's still only 3:17am, and sleep shall continue to elude him through the very long night.

**5:57am**

"Can I ask a personal question?" Matt asks. It's the first he's heard of him this morning.

"Um… okay, what is it?" Alex says tiredly, sitting at a table, putting down his phone.

"With your… invisibility, do you know how it works? Like, scientifically how this is caused." Matt asks.

"Do you want to be the first to try? Is that what your asking?" Alex rephrases the rat's questions.

"I'm no scientist, and if you don't want to know then I'll respect that. But I wanna help you, you're my friend and you just seem to live with this and let it control you. Maybe there is a way for you to control it, but we'd have to know how it works." Matt explains.

"All I know about, this. Is that it's involuntary, happens when I'm nervous or scared, and it must use up a lot of energy because I get hungry after using it for longer periods." Alex explains. "If you can add to that, then, please. Be my guest."

"I've just realised, I don't even know where to begin." Matt says, changing from being calm and planned to suddenly poking holes in his own plan. He gives a self-muffled laugh to deal with the failure of being wrong. "It's not like I have equipment or even knowing what equipment could help. I know computers and engineering, I don't know molecular biology. Maybe what I said was a bit ambitious."

"It's okay." Alex replies, unaffected by his backtracking. "I'm sorta comfortable with what I know about it."

"But don't you just, want to know?" Matt asks.

"You sound like Erin." Alex replies. "If she had this then it'd drive her insane not knowing how it worked. I know enough, enough is all I need to know."

"You see, I don't get that way of thinking; you're not curious at all. I don't understand how people can just not want to know more." Matt replies.

"Now you really sound like my sister." Alex responds. Matt laughs at this statement for a short period, Alex chuckles as well.

"We're just different people." Matt replies. "I can't change that."

"You could." Alex replies. "Anyway, there's a small change to the plan. Erin and I have to back to London."

"What for?" Matt naturally asks, being of such a curious nature.

"Don't know. Don't ask." Alex answers back.

"Got it. I'll change the itinerary." Matt says, walking away from the table to continue the never-ending tasks to keep the wheels of this gang steady and aligned.


	23. Revelations at Different Locations

**Chapter 23 – Revelations at Different Locations**

**Paris, France. 11:35am, 7****th**** November 2032.**

As soon as Matt, Jess and Tyson arrived at the airport in Paris, Jeremy's men immediately spotted them; a lot of people surround the three of them to ensure no escape. They were walked out of the airport into a waiting two-car convoy. On the positive side, it'll save them time from having to navigate the city by themselves on public transport. But they're more uncomfortable having to sit together 3 abreast facing 3 guards opposite them in the clean black van with even darker tinted windows. It's completely silent, tension mounts up with every second. The henchmen's heads stay fixed solid, looking out the back window whereas the others are not quite as disciplined. Matt averts his eyes away from them at all costs; he would easily lose if a scuffle, physical or verbal, broke out. Tyson is still incredibly laid back despite the situation, being unusually casual around their captors. Jess is the strongest out them, she is far from afraid of the thugs but they are not the target, they are on the peripheral.

They stop outside an apartment block in the heart of the city and are instructed silently through hand gestures to get out. The three leave first before more than ten guards in the convoy get out into predetermined positions like the beginning of a stage show. They open the door to the inside after one of the guards unlocks it with a code. The stairs looks relatively new, but are rickety, creaking under the weight of the train following behind. The building itself isn't what they expected. It's maintained only to a certain level that is not all encompassing. Paint flakes, wooden floors are worn and unvarnished and there is a bit of visible grime in the corners. As they rise up the stairs, the number of guard following them decreases, two guards stop at the landing of each floor until they are the only ones left allowed to go to the top floor, the penthouse.

"Ready?" Matt asks them, waiting to open the door on behalf of the group. Jess doesn't see the point and opens it before he has the chance. She leads them inside confidently into the room that is at a much higher standard compared to the stairway. All the colours are much brighter, looking like they have been freshly renovated meaning the sun has not had time to fade them. The purple on the wallpaper is deeper, the contrast on the gold fleur des lys is greater and the furniture looks to be new with the cut wood smell wafting through the air.

"Do you like it?" Jeremy asks, sitting on one of turquoise fabric couches looking out to the rooftop skyline over the balcony. It's weird, because it's not a taunt; it's a serious question. Jess walks into the room first followed by the other two. It paints a look of disappointment Le Paradox to see they are the only ones there.

"Did he just send you three here, his lackeys, to see me?" He asks, now he's back to his default taunting mode. He sees that they are all standing uncomfortably looking at him, he want's to ease the tension in the room.

"Sit, please. It's not booby trapped if that's what you're worried about." He insists. Tyson is the first to sit down, taking up way too much of the couch with his large size.

"Let me ask you this, to start. Do you think that this is where I conduct my business?" He asks. The three are all silent for a brief period.

"No?" Tyson answers hesitantly.

"Right you are." Jeremy congratulates. "Here, have €10,000."

He reaches into his pocket slowly so to not put them off by thinking that he's pulling out a gun. He shows them the neatly bound bundle of money before tossing into Tyson's lap.

"You see, when I heard that one of the lower flats here was available. I came and managed to speak with the landlord when I inspected the property. For such a run down property, he asked for €3 million, and do you know what I said? I said I wanted to buy the entire block of apartments from the basement to the very top of the chimney. He explained to me that he didn't own the entire building, in any case I paid €4 million because I was a nice guy and he was willing to sell immediately. That was in the second floor, so I then went down to the first floor and knocked on the door and asked if I could buy their apartment as well, when they refused, I made an offer they couldn't refuse. No, I did not murder a young family then and there, I'm not a monster. I offered to not only buy their apartment but I would buy one for them on their behalf separately. In total that one floor cost me €7 million, some were more expensive than others; but do you know why I went and did this? It was all for this one." Le Paradox explains. "Because, according to local law, the majority owner of a building receives any lots which are vacated and empty for an extended period of time. I owned the rest of the building; I got this one for free."

"It's a shame the Cooper's couldn't be here to see this, because, this used to be owned by their father." Jeremy says. "That would have sounded better if they were actually here…"

"You wasted a whole lot of money buying the building just so you could feel that you had a superiority over Alex?" Jess asks, being the more headstrong out of the three.

"No, that's where you are wrong. I actually profited from the whole venture, can you believe that in every nook and cranny was something of value?" Jeremy corrects. "The real reason why I come here… is not to take care of business or even to claim the hidden loot, this place is too good for that. This place, is more of a personal reminder to me that I am not limited by and that I can overcome the past. I was orphaned at a young age, I was mocked and ridiculed until…"

"You talk about that or I'll rip your throat out!" Matt shouts full of uncharacteristic rage, standing up to dominate the skunk.

"Woah… chill," Jeremy says on the defensive. "What did I just say before? You're not limited by and that you can overcome your past."

Matt slowly sits down back into his more quiet self.

"Suffice to say, I'm here and you are there." Jeremy replies.

"Hang on, what's the actual point of us being here? You've talked a lot but you haven't said anything yet." Tyson asks. Jess and Matt half turn and stare at Tyson for such an unusually insightful comment, even Jeremy is put off by it.

"Straight to business then." Jeremy replies.

"But you said…" Tyson begins.

"I know what I said." Jeremy says but his concentration is broken by the sound of a little ping, like people clinking glasses together before beginning a meal. Jeremy turns, half loathed at yet another foolish assassination attempt. He can see the bullet lodged right in the middle of the bulletproof glass.

"Not again." Jeremy complains outwardly. "I just had that window replaced."

"Dead skunk walking." Jess comments.

"I don't consider myself to be lucky; I'm merely, prepared." Jeremy replies. "Now, you know I'm wealthy, I'm prepared to offer a very generous remuneration package for all of you that will keep all of your pockets lined with untraceable bills in exchange for your utmost loyalty. If there's a job that needs doing and you're suited for it, you do it without question. Of course, we can work around Alex's extreme aversion to death and any other minor squabbles that you have."

"Let's see: you've pushed Alex off a building, you've hijacked every single attempted heist, you killed a lot of security guards and police, you've invaded a bank, you've captured Erin's gang and taken her possessions for yourself. Not that this was necessary, I would have said no anyway." Matt answers strongly. "You're nothing but a manipulative bully."

He pauses to reflect on Matt's obvious disliking to his offer.

"I'll give you a chance to reconsider because where there is a carrot, there is a stick; well in this case, more like a tree trunk." Jeremy replies. "I've been kind, I've shown you what I can do and how annoying it is to have to see my handsome face at every turn. If you reaffirm your wrong decision, then consider it impossible to do any heists of any kind. You'll fade into obscurity before you've even begun! Whereas if you come into my little group, you will be free to do all the heists you want. I can provide opportunities, support, financial backing, anything you need I can get; within reason of course."

"So, what do you say?"

They are all looking at each other, wondering what to do about this incredibly tempting offer. No one wants to speak until Matt gets out his phone.

"Can I call them and ask, just to be safe?" Matt asks.

"Yeah sure, go ahead. I'll be waiting right here." Jeremy casually says whilst Matt dials his phone, ready to call Alex.

**20 Minutes Earlier in a field in North East England**

"Why would he bring us out here?" Erin asks, staring at a GPS locator on Alex's phone, walking towards the target. They can see nothing but countryside in all directions; trees, fields and the occasional road that cuts through the greenery. This path is just a dirt road that they're walking along searching for what Bentley perceives to be important. But right now, they can't see anything interesting.

"This location is just a spot in that field over there." Erin points out to her brother out in front. "Do you think it's a trap?"

Alex does a double take to make sure no one is following him or is about to spring a trap.

"I can't see anyone but you." Alex replies.

"Land mines perhaps?" Erin thinks.

"Don't be silly." Alex replies. "Maybe it's like buried treasure or something, more loot."

"That's a stupid place to hide treasure, what if someone is tilling the field to plant some crops or laying foundations for a building and recovers it? Besides, why would dad try to store loot here if he's already got a vault to store it in?"

Alex stops in surprise of what she's talking about.

"In Switzerland?" Alex asks.

"Yeah, you've been there?" Erin asks.

"You've been there?" Alex asks back.

"Some guys in suits came to my apartment and whisked me off to Switzerland one night." Erin explains as they walk along. "Bentley must have put in a lot of effort into all of those traps to keep people out."

"When I saw that single laser shooting across that void, I didn't have a clue what to do. When I remembered what I needed to do, it was like… a brick wall hit me in the face. I'm thinking, that's not possible." Alex recounts.

"I just did it, if dad could do it then I thought that I can do to too, screw conventional science. I've slid on a near massless object." Erin replies. They're both revelling in a small moment of brilliance and audacity. They've walked right up to as close as they can get on the road to the point without straying off the path and they haven't even realised it yet. They are having a blast just talking openly to each other.

"Here it is." Erin stops as she turns to the left to see the smooth dirt patch of farmland yet to be tilled. She watches intently at the screen and paces forward like following a treasure map before stopping about 30 metres inside the field.

"That's the coordinate right here." Erin says, looking up then down at her position for confirmation of some sort. "He didn't say to bring a shovel did he?"

"No, guess we'll have to make do with these." Alex replies, referring to his gloved hands. He gets onto his knees and begins to dig out the dirt. Erin follows his lead by placing her cane on the ground and begins to shovel the dirt behind them. Two heaps begins to pile up behind them as the hole gets deeper. They continue to dig even as the whole gets large enough to stand in.

"I'm starting to think it might not be in this spot." Erin says as the hole gets even deeper and wider.

"It must be here, it's the correct coordinate isn't it?" Alex says as he scrapes along the sidewall, beginning to dig outwards, when he does this he hits a hard object that's not a tree root or a stone, but something much smoother and shinier even after it's long stay underground. It's the dark, plastic handle of a briefcase of some kind.

"I've found something." Alex says to Erin who's waiting at the top. He retracts his cane from the grabber and hooks it around the handle and pulls it out from the dirt, causing the ground surrounding it to cave in. He climbs up out of the hole and puts the case into Erin's hands using the cane.

"Do you want to do the honours?" Ask Alex. "Or you can fill in the hole, it's your choice."

"Um, thanks." Erin says awkwardly as Alex begins the much easier task of pushing the piles of dirt back into the hole. Erin meanwhile inspects the small briefcase and it's security. She sees smooth sliver hard cover around it and just pushes into it to feel it's toughness. It crumples when she pushes in and it rebounds out when no force it applied, but it feel flimsy, like it's just a temporary case; a protection against the forces of nature. She feels around the centre of the thin side, feeling for a catch or release but the finish is smooth and flawless. So the only solution is simple, brute force. She crouches down and puts the case on the ground and begins to try and rip the protective casing off with all of her strength. They snap off either side of the actual briefcase, which has one side full of security devices; a handprint scanner, a retina scanner and a numerical electronic code with 18 digits required. Erin takes off a glove and puts it on the handprint scanner, which it accepts before looking into the retina scanner, passing that one as well. Now it's only a code with a myriad of possible combinations that's left. Alex has finished filling and smoothing the hole out and is now looking over her shoulder.

"We need some sort of code breaker, maybe Matt can hack into it." Alex wonders out loud as Erin puts in some numbers. "And why would he need to put this code on it when it's already got…"

It accepts the code as well. Alex is not surprised and neither is Erin, they both know that she's got a knack for breaking codes.

"Open it." Alex says in eagerness to see what's inside.

"We should do it in a secure place." Erin decides. "Not here, it's too open."

Alex does another double take just to provide his point that no one is listening or watching in on their conversation. The nearby road is empty; the path is clear and there's not a bird in the sky.

"And empty." Alex reminds her. "Open it up."

She pinches her finger around one of the clasps for the briefcase but hesitates when doing so. She is put off by something in the surroundings. There is that feeling that somehow, they are not alone, she can sense it. She does a double take as well looking down the empty road, the clear path and up to the sky but she neither hears nor sees nothing.

"I still don't think we're safe here, let's get out of here first." Erin says, making a conservative judgement call. She stands up with the briefcase in one and the cane in her other and begins to walk back to the bus stop from which they came. After taking only five steps, she stops again and looks around.

"Do you hear that?" She asks quickly to Alex, who also is picking up the faint sound she hears in the distance.

"Yeah I hear it." Alex says, then he sees what's causing it, then he sees a dust trail coming from their right.

"Look!" Alex points to Erin as a convoy of three black vans approaches at rapid speed to their location. Alex and Erin both run into the field to get away from this threat running to a line of trees, which partially screens the road from view. They look back and see the sliding door of the van open as it stops to let it's occupants out. However, They can hear a sound coming from the main road itself. They are being surrounded from both sides. Another vehicle, a sedan appears from the left from behind the trees and it stops across from them. The back window is down and a balaclava-wearing marksman holding a rifle is pointing it at them! The shooter signals to them whilst aiming down the scope telling them to get out of the way. Alex and Erin race across the dirt and away from the sniper's line of fire. There is no muzzle flash, there is no gunshot sound; the only sound they hear next is a thunderous explosion. Alex turns back for a brief look, the front left corner of the front van has caved in dramatically, making it impossible to drive. There are also at least ten assailants pursuing them on foot all dressed in the wrong type of clothing for this terrain, a suit. They run into the line of trees to get into some cover as another bang rings out across the countryside.

"Keep running!" Alex urges as the clash continues behind them silently as some try and take out this impedance to the prize whilst some continue to chase the two fleeing raccoons. They continue running away as fast they can, with the adrenaline pumping keeping them going. To the right, to their astonishment, a paratrooper swoops in to cut them off on the road, wearing a full grey bodysuit as well as a dark grey parachute for camouflage against the clouds. One lands on the ground, discarding his parachute in the process as another one swoops in to do the same manoeuvre.

"What do we do?" Alex asks.

"I don't know." She replies automatically. The two masked paratroopers advance towards them from one side whilst suited henchmen approach from the other. They have no choice but to cut across back away from the road to bisect their paths. This route takes them into another more grassy field where there is helicopter hovering low to the ground with a rope ladder hanging from the side for them to escape the situation. Naturally, they don't trust that way of exit, but they can't stop moving with all of these separate criminal entities converging on them; all for the contents of that briefcase. As they run off to the side of the hovering helicopter, it moves to block them, using the ladder to block their path. However, it's not agile enough to change direction as fast as they do so they pass underneath without being trapped. They're thinking that is becoming nonsensical, that all of these parties were here, waiting for them to uncover the briefcase so they can pick it off them but that's not how it's appearing. Some appear to not be interested in them but are more focused on stopping others from reaching them. There is a broader spectacle at play.

A rugged four-wheel drive turns off the road and careens straight for their position at high speed before it's front left side is impacted by an explosive bullet from the sniper; snapping it's suspension and decimating the wheel, ploughing it to an abrupt stop in the field. They can see two riders on quad bikes and in full protective gear and full face helmets approaching as well as the helicopter behind them tries to manoeuvre towards them. The people in the four-wheel drive now rush out and chase them on foot now their vehicle is bogged down. The quad bikes race towards them before making a U turn to come up along side them to drive along at the same pace they are running, as to offer them an escape out of here like the helicopter. They're making rapid, desperate hand signals to tell them to get on. The mayhem is getting too out of hand for Alex and Erin as they get tired. At some point they need a way out, their own propulsion is inferior to the surrounding vehicles. Alex is the first to jump onto the back of first quad bike with a heavy and tired leap. Erin has no choice but to follow, the worst thing they can do is to get separated.

The two leather clothed rider's speed away from the convergence of criminals, the helicopter begins to pursue them as well as the marksman's sedan from the road. They tear across fields with little regard for what is on them until they reach another road where a small truck is coming across in a perfectly choreographed manoeuvre. The back doors of the truck swing open as two people inside the truck throw a metal ramp that hinges onto the bottom of the truck and crashes down onto the asphalt with many sparks flying from the back. The two riders quickly drive onto the ramp and into the rear bay of the truck one behind the other. The ramp is pulled up with a rope until it's fully vertical before shutting the doors on the light, leaving them in the dark. The riders stay on their bikes for stability in the fast moving truck trying to get away from the other pursuing groups, but Alex and Erin have gotten off and have sat on the floor of the truck to rest. All they can hear is the whining of the electric engine and the tyre roar reverberating from the inside. The inside is too dark for them to see who and where everyone is.

Alex's phone begins to vibrate; he takes it out of his pocket and uses the light from it to briefly look around his surroundings. There are four unknowns, all in full-faced helmets and leather protective gear waiting either on the bikes or leaning up against the sides. Erin is sitting almost perfectly across from Alex near the back of the truck. He looks at the phone itself to see it's Matt calling.

"Hey, what's up?" Alex says, this catches the attention of the people inside the truck.

"Le Paradox is offering to get off our backs in exchange for our loyalty. Do you have any other reasons to say no?" Matt asks sarcastically.

"Yeah, he's sent a whole bunch of people after us; helicopters, paratroopers, vans, quad bikes…." Alex answers.

"I'll let him know." Matt says, hanging up the phone which Alex puts back in his pocket. As soon as he does this he can hear someone coming towards them. He turns the phone on so he can see and sees someone reaching down to restrain him! The leather-covered assailant smothers and pushes Alex to the ground and holds him there as the raccoon thrashes back to regain himself over him. On the other side, Erin is facing the same fate although she managed to get a leg up on her attacker since her brother was attacked first. She's whacking and punching furiously at her unseen attacker whilst trying to protect their prize. They are outnumbered and outmuscled two to one. The raccoons are not physically built for strength, but power, it shows as they are both pinned to the ground by two of this group each.

**Paris, France**

"He says no, oh, and he says thanks for those guys you sent after him by the way." Matt answers back as he coolly slots away his phone. This puts a mixed reaction of

Le Paradox's face, he knows of the many parties, in fact he set up the entire stunt. Having as much interest in the Cooper's as he does, he made sure to claim this for his own as soon as possible. But, in a money making thought, he auctioned off the location and time for millions (of his own, or a more widely accepted currency) to only a handful of wealthy buyers; hoping that they can make an impression on one of the most successful criminals and get future business.

"Did he say that he was captured, by who?" Jeremy asks, being totally serious but Matt reads it as arrogance.

"No, he's safe away from you. Your grasp is…" Matt begins to tirade.

"No, wait." Jeremy interrupts, buying himself a second of thinking time to figure out his next question. "Did he say, who he was captured by?"

"Why do you care?" Jess asks insultingly. "You've tortured him for days."

"How do I put this…" He asks to himself, he's in quite the predicament here. "If I don't know exactly where the Cooper's are at all times then it becomes a problem for all of us."

"Yeah, because they're hiding…!" Tyson retaliates but Jeremy ignores it as his phone rings. He grabs it out of his pocket very quickly, like he's been waiting eagerly for this call.

"Where are they?" Jeremy snaps at the phone. He listens to the response and he holds his head in his hand in frustration, much to the three's pleasure.

"Chase after them!" Jeremy advises strongly down the phone, he looks like he is about to vent his frustration on something or someone.

"You don't know?! How come this wasn't planned for?!"

"Do you see them?!"

"Is anyone pursuing the truck?!"

"Get everyone in that area, The money goes to whoever breaks them out! They must be stopped now!" Jeremy shouts. "Go!"

He turns off his phone and sighs, struggling to contain the anger and frustrations at his subordinate's failure. But even worse than that, Alex and Erin have slipped into the worst possible hands from his point of view. He slips the phone away and paces across the room to think of his next move. Jeremy is on the edge here, potentially the most valuable asset he has is slipping away from his grasp. Meanwhile, the others are quite content at the skunk's rage, seeing him be week and not at all calm in a fixed and scripted way.

"Well, I think we should leave; you have business to attend to." Jess taunts, already beginning to walk out of the room.

"Wait." Jeremy says, time is ticking and his options are running out. "Believe me when I say they have been captured by someone worse than me. Interpol has got them now."


	24. Meant to be Broken

**Chapter 24 – Meant to be Broken**

**Paris, France. 11:57am, 7****th**** November 2032.**

The hard part of being undercover is to know who you are meant to be rather than who you are. Reacting to the news that Interpol has actually captured both Alex and Erin is music to her ears, but the bad part for her is that it seemed that she had nothing to do with it. All this time she had been feeding intelligence to Interpol, but from nothing but the knowledge of what flight they were on, they were captured. She still feels left out of the loop on the workings happening back where she can be Charlotte and discard this personality named Jess, they never told her of any impending or pressing need to contain them as quickly as possible. She was prepared to wait it out for as long as it took to get them behind bars for a long enough time period to nullify any future potential thefts. This Jeremy character seems to be doing that task for her, foiling his plots at every turn and willing to do it at every opportunity.

Yet, there was still a lingering sense that the job had not been done, that she could not disappear from this assignment yet. They may have been captured, but who knows what may happen next? She won't be satisfied until they are in an inescapable jail cell. The three of them have left the company of Jeremy and have retired to a café for lunch and to discuss their next move; in their heads, they vary wildly. Matt's idea of a diamond heist has disappeared far away from now that the table have turned, flipped and imploded in on itself.

"So, it's just us." Matt comments, staring at their empty table where there should be two seats more.

"We shouldn't have separated like that. I mean, I didn't think this would happen but… It's happened." Matt says, pausing to think over his words and the words on the menu. "Does anyone happen to know how to break someone out of prison?"

"You're the smart guy." Tyson replies. "It's your job to think."

"I was just a guess, I don't know. I'll get to work on a plan when we find where they are." Matt says as a finely dressed waiter comes across to take their order.

"Bonjour, What would you like?" the waiter asks in a heavy accent.

"Not yet, 2 minutes." Matt replies.

"As you wish." The waiter says, leaving the table and returning to his duties.

"Wait, what's going to happen next?" Tyson asks. "I mean, to us. It's all ending."

"We're not finished." Matt iterates enthusiastically as the waiter returns to bring cutlery despite the fact that they haven't ordered yet. "Just like all of the skunk's antics, it's only a setback which we'll come through for the better. We're not going to panic about this."

"I'm just going to the toilet." Jess says as she gets out of her chair and moves in the direction opposite to where the bathrooms are.

"Hey, Jess. The bathrooms…" Matt says to get her attention but she's intensely focused on something else. She leaves the restaurant and once she's outside she tears off down the street.

"Where's she going?" Tyson asks confusedly.

"Something's up." Matt says.

"There's something into her napkin." Tyson glances, looking to the clean white folded napkin that's resting as if was unaltered; save for the impression of a card lying inside. Tyson opens it up one half carefully and there is a white card placed inside. He picks it up with precision and reads it.

"Run." Tyson reads before passing it to Matt, not taking into immediate consideration what it means.

"We have to leave." Matt says quickly getting up from his chair. But Tyson is far more calm and relaxed; he casually unfolds his napkin to discover he does not have the same message. As Matt hurriedly slings his backpack on containing his equipment, Tyson unfolds Matt's napkin to find the same result as his own.

"That message was for her." Tyson says. "Just sit, no rush."

"No, we've gotta go." Matt says, only focused on leaving.

"Shhhhhh." Tyson says. "Sit, we're not told to run, so lets stay here and eat something nice. Where's our invitation to run?"

Matt stops and opens up his serviette, which contains nothing inside, and slowly sits down whilst looking around for any sign of trouble.

"Okay so…" Matt begins to say as he sees two cars race down the narrow street in the same direction that Jess ran off in. The two of them keep their heads down so they are not exposed. "So what do you want to eat?"

**In the back of a truck on a motorway somewhere in Eastern England. **

The motorway is much smoother than the rural b roads, which makes for good news for the shackled and bound raccoons now wearing a host of restrictive devices to make sure they can't escape. The agents, who still have not removed their riding protection or helmets, have gone for overkill on these teenagers; not knowing if they can slip them like Houdini, or even worse, their father. They each have handcuffs tied to their back with two zip ties tightened just enough to bind them but not enough so that they can escape from them. They also have a zip tie around their ankles so they can't get up easily. Alex has his backpack containing his cane as well has Erin has had the briefcase and her cane taken off her with resistance, as well as taking anything else they had in their pockets, even Alex's treasured mirror which they didn't know why he had it. Now they are trying to unlock the briefcase. The four agents have moved to the front of the bay whilst Alex and Erin are slumped opposite each other at the back.

The agents have naturally tried brute force to break the case, which didn't work at all. They have brutally forced Erin to unlock the handprint and retina scanner by holding her down and grabbing her hands and holding her eyelid open in the dim light. No doubt this worked her up significantly, becoming aggressive towards the officers and wearing each punishment like a badge of honour. Alex is silently proud, but he's also ashamed that he's not fighting like his sister; he sits in the corner silently, reacting without tenacity when scuffles break out.

Jess was right; he is the weakest minded criminal in the world.

Erin breathes in hard to recover from being held down by the cold and lifeless agents who don't seem to have any restraint in their actions. All her muscles relax after tensing as hard as she could so they could not manipulate her body to activate the briefcase. Now they only have the very long code left to enter.

"The code." One of the agents asks through his helmet. This agent is simply pleased that they have fallen right into their trap, even better that he's trapped them and not because of Charlotte. Erin is defiantly silent in the semi darkness lit only by a bright LED torch. The agent lifts his boot and presses down on her stomach until she struggles to breathe, a horrible sight for Alex to bear witness to.

"The, code." He asks sternly, apply more pressure to her abdomen. Erin begins to splutter and gasp for air.

"Hey!" Alex snaps, he won't let her take all this damage. "Come beat me, she's had enough!"

"Okay, you!" He replies, and points for one of the other agents to begin working on Alex simultaneously. He gets his own share of the 'fun', soles of boots pressing down hard on his head and chest, kicked and punched repeatedly; but neither Alex nor Erin give in or say a word apart from the involuntary groans and muffled moans from being assaulted continually. They only stop to ask more questions.

"What is inside the briefcase?!" He asks getting impatient, but he gets the same silence as before.

This continues for several minutes of interrogation followed by more violence executed without remorse. The only thing that stops them is a sudden bump on the smooth highway, which causes the truck to veer violently to the left, which the driver struggles to correct. The agents loose balance inside, either steadying themselves against the left side of the truck or on the stationary quad bikes. The trucks slows down as it grinds along it's wheel rim, as it turns into the emergency lane, another tire is shot out to further cripple it's movement.

"They have backup!" He shouts full of rage that the seemingly perfect capture is unravelling before him. It was going to prove that he is the better agent.

"Don't unlock the rear! And keep driving!" He shouts to the front, hoping the driver can hear him. Pride is partly overriding his emotions now, it is all slipping away. The truck is moving at an unsustainable crawl as it grinds the rims down with the unattached rubber wobbling around. The truck stops, much to the head agent's anger.

"Keep going, secure the briefcase!" He instructs as he gets onto the phone to call for backup. "We're being ambushed! We need an immediate extraction!"

The agents drag Alex and Erin to the back of the truck to make it harder for any potential invaders to defeat them. Outside they can hear the whirring of a low hovering helicopter, which they think to be just above the motorway, trying to execute a landing. Alex and Erin are shielded by the leather-clad bodies of the agents who stand ready, trying to defend their possessions. There is banging on the rear of the door, someone trying to knock but they don't respond. The outsiders begin to unlock the rear doors, swinging them open to reveal light that burns everyone's eyes, the ramp still provides partial protection like a retractable wall. But a single person reaches high enough to swing it down overrides it manually. Outside, there is a major traffic jam unfolding behind them which they see, the helicopter still has it's blades whirring to their left and at least 10 people are waiting outside dressed from the neat to the more practical and equipped to various degrees of self protection. Nevertheless, as soon as the ramp is down, they all begin to rush inside and overpower the 4 agents, dragging them away from the captives.

The henchmen then cut the zip ties off Alex and Erin whilst another takes away the briefcase and races outside to get away. Naturally, this upsets both Coopers who struggle against the people trying to free them.

"Give it back!" shouts Erin but it doesn't have an effect as the briefcase disappears from sight. She kicks out at the henchmen before they hold her down in order to safely untie her legs as well as Alex's.

"Get your stuff and we'll get you of here." He explains quickly.

"Not without that case." Erin sternly refuses.

"What case?" He asks like he doesn't know as their canes are handed to their handcuffed hands. "Take your stuff and get up, before the police come."

Alex gets up with more ease than his sister, who still wants that case back badly. In any case, they both pick their stuff up and trudge out of the back of the truck, knowing that police will arrive any moment now and have them watched as soon as they get there, which is a situation nobody wants. This helper opens up the rear of a sedan to let them into their ride away from the confrontation. Once inside, this henchmen runs away to his own method of escape and the car pulls away down the clear highway to whisk them away. From Alex's seat, he can see the sniper's high tech rifle sitting on the front passenger seat; this is the marksman's car he saw earlier. The marksman that shot down the drone, which cleared a path for him in Finland and crippled Le Paradox's guards so they had a chance to run away; but Alex isn't thinking about that, he's glad to simply be out of Interpol's hands.

"Where are we going?" Erin asks. There is no response; the still balaclava-covered sniper is silent throughout the entire journey back to London. Covered in bulky black clothing from head to toe as to show no part of the skin, to conceal the identity from those who want to seek it out. It is an hour of forced silence until they reach London, where the sniper drops them right outside their foster father's house. They think that Jeremy must have had them under surveillance for a while and fed some of this information to his subordinates. When the car stops, the driver waits patiently for the passengers to leave on their own.

"Thanks." Alex thanks awkwardly to the driver for getting them out safely and quickly; but he doesn't know whom he's thanking, which is what made it awkward. They both take their stuff and leave, entering thanks to Alex's key to the house. The driver is still there when they both go inside… watching, and thinking… thoughts like that must be quashed. This causes the marksman to drive away, fearful of what might happen from staying to close for too long.

The house is empty, doctors still have to work in weekends as injury and illness don't stop simply because it's a Saturday.

"What are we going to do now?" Alex asks, more to vent out his frustration at failure more than wanting an answer. "We don't know… what's even in there or why everyone wants it so much."

"Why don't we find out?" Erin responds.

"How? We don't even…" Alex protests as Erin unzips his backpack. When she does this, it brings an incredibly wide grin to his face at the disbelief of what he thinks she has done.

"That's not…" Alex replies, still in awesome disbelief.

"Possible?" Erin completes as she takes out three identical A4 sized brown paper envelopes. "I only complained about the case, not what was inside so technically, I wasn't lying."

"You emptied when you opened it? Didn't you?" He asks.

"Let's call it quick thinking and leave it at that." Erin replies. "We should see what everyone wants so much."

"Yes let's." Alex replies. Erin takes the three envelopes and puts them out on a table. Each one has a cryptic title. They have '_What you want to know', 'What everyone wants to know'_ and_ 'What you don't want to know'. _

"Let's not find out what we don't want to know." Erin says, pushing for the final envelope.

"Then why give it to us in the first place?" Alex asks.

"Reverse psychology perhaps?" Erin wonders, "Or maybe it's… What would we not want to know?"

"That we don't exist and this world isn't real?" Alex jokingly guesses.

"Don't be stupid." Erin replies. "Let's see what we want to know."

"What gives Bentley the right to say what we want to know or not? I remember that he's smart but he can't read minds." Alex says as Erin opens it up and gives it a quick glance.

"You'll want to know this." Erin says, handing the envelope and some of it's papers half hanging out of the open end. "Only, you."

"What is…?" Alex asks automatically, but as he reads the first few lines of the top sheet, he is almost… taken back, not overwhelmed in a sense but like a big chunk of his life is now known. Riding the wave of satisfaction and relief, he inspects the contents of the envelope.

"This… this explains it all." Alex says. "How invisibility… works."

All he hopes from this is to gain some control.

"It's so… detailed." Alex remarks, putting the pile of papers on the table. "I can't read all of it now, let alone understand it."

"Okay, so… Should we know what everyone wants to know or what we don't want to know?" Erin asks to Alex.

"I'm scared to know what's in the last two." Alex makes known. "If it's anything like the first then… I don't want to know anymore. It's like blackjack, I'm on 20, I'm not going to draw another card; there is almost nothing that could make it better. I'm satisfied in knowing that perhaps, somewhere in here, is the key on how to get it under control."

This goes against what Erin was thinking, in fact, she was most intrigued by what see didn't want to know. She wants to know everything she can, therefore it makes the statement incorrect.

"We've got to do this." Erin says frankly, holding the last envelope up to show Alex.

"No, wait!" Alex stops, he doesn't want to know what he doesn't want to know. "Okay, let's see what everyone wants to know and then I'm leaving it at that."

"Um, okay." Erin somewhat agrees. She tears open the seal and inside finds a collection of sheets, detailing the location of the legendary Cooper vault, along with some photos of the exterior but none of the inside.

"That vault in Zurich is not the Cooper vault." Erin says. "It's in the pacific on an island."

Alex's reaction is more unmeasured that Erin's.

"We have an island?" He asks himself. This was never mentioned in the Thievius Raccoonus in order to protect them against being tortured for that very sensitive knowledge until they were ready to hold it and lock in inside for the rest of their lives. "And that vault in Switzerland was not it? How could it be any bigger or more elaborate? Maybe there's some loot stored there, but a vault kept on an island… that doesn't sound like I'm in the same reality. I mean, and I have to just say this again for myself, a vault… on an island!"

"Why not?" Erin wonders. "Where else would all our ancestors store their loot undetected?"

"I always imagined there were many safes around the world and that one in Switzerland was the biggest of them all, making that one the Cooper vault. How much loot could there possibly be?" Alex explains.

"A lot?" Erin answers.

"Hmph" Alex grunts, but he's becoming fearful; his shoulder's struggle to carry the burden that is being put on them with every envelope opened. "It's all happening so fast. I don't think I'm ready all of this."

"Alex." Erin calls to him.

"You… you're ready to know this stuff and take responsibility, I don't even have any confidence that I can even live up to my own expectations; and even they're set very low." Alex explains, descending into a self-pitying mope.

"There's nothing I can do to help you change that, remember? It's all you." Erin replies.

"I spend nearly 2 years trying to do that, running away from my problems and travelling to new places in order to find solutions. Those solutions never came." Alex continues.

"If you waited for things to just lap up at your doorstep, you'll grow old quickly. You have to go the solutions, you have to make them work for you. The Thievius Raccoonus didn't make great thieves," Erin explains.

"… great thieves made the Thievius Raccoonus." Alex joins in like he's said the exact same words hundreds of times.

"Exactly!" Erin exclaims. "So, we're going to get back at Le Paradox, we're going to do this on our terms, not on his. We will go to him like you will go find those solutions."

"But how?" Alex asks, poking the most obvious flaw in her dreams.

"We'll figure it out, no one's impervious to everything." Erin answers.

"Except him." Alex replies. This frustrates Erin severely.

"If mum or dad were here, they'd kick you into next week for saying that! There's probably, I don't know, millions who'd gladly trade spots with you. How many people can turn invisible? One, that's you! Only you! And... how many people can jump across a busy street?" Speaks Erin, giving a motivational speech.

"You saw the video?" Alex says meekly.

"Of course I did, it was brilliant! I don't have the guts to do that, no one does but you." Erin says. "Now, the question is… do you have the guts to see what's in here?"

"There's a warning that tells us not open it." Alex warns.

"Some rules are meant to be broken." Erin replies, grasping the final unopened envelope in her hands.

Erin hands it out to Alex who gingerly accepts it, like the figurative weight of the contents has suddenly become the actual weight. He takes a deep breath and slides his finger along the seal to break it. He turns his head away, not yet wanting to see what it is. He fishes inside for the contents, 3 sheets of paper, and feels for anything else which he doesn't.

"Are you ready?" Alex asks in anticipation. He still can't look at it; if he looks, there no turning back. There is no memory wipe device they can use, no time machine to prevent him from doing it; the very permanence of knowing what is inside is an icy chill that freezes Alex before he can do anything else. He pushes the paper back into the envelope and shuts it.

"I can't do it." Alex admits. "I just… can't."

"Here, I'll do it." Erin offers, acting like it's no big deal. She receives the final envelope from Alex and opens it, pulling out the pieces of paper for herself to read. Even Alex can see the effect it has on her immediately, even for someone so calm and controlled, it hits her like a freight train. She quickly and hurriedly pushes the papers back inside, now on edge, looking around for a place of refuge. She races away up the stairs with the envelope in her hand and into the nearest room she finds. Alex follows behind but at a nervous walking pace, he's concerned for her but he's not sure what to do. He climbs the flight of stairs and stands at the landing; he knows which room she is in, he can hear her… hear her… crying.

He almost wants to break down himself, simply because his sister is doing so. Alex hears how she's trying to supress it, trying to stay strong in the face of such unwelcome news. He can only let her be, letting it all play out uninterrupted as he waits just outside of the room. A thought is realised, he did this. Because he was too chicken, because he was not strong enough to do so, it caused her to shoulder all the pain. He wishes that that time machine were on hand right now, so he could change it all. He would rather be in tears than her if it meant she was okay. The crying stops as all her tears are used up and deep, sniffily breaths take their place. Even when she is stopped making such saddening sounds, Alex dares not attempt to enter, nor disturb anything.

"Alex…" Erin says through the door, trying to be as normal sounding as she can be. "I know you're out there…you need to come in here and see this for yourself. Once it's done, it's done and we can continue our lives. I don't want to keep it from you, that would only make it worse. So please, just come in here so we can do this together."

Alex gingerly grasps the door handle and opens it very slowly, he sees Erin sitting upright against the foot of a double bed with red, moist eyes that have been rubbed vigourously. The envelope is sitting on her outstretched thighs, the tab opened but the contents still inside. When she sees Alex, she tries with all of her self-control to stay that way; self-controlled.

"Just take it." She pleads. "I'm here, I'm right here." She says softly.

Alex takes the envelope again, a second chance which he doesn't want to mess up. So, like being forced to eat foul tasting food, he takes the sheet fully out of the envelope to leave him no chance of chickening out. He takes just a peak, a peak that turns into an intent stare at the words printed on the page. Words he can't comprehend, words he want to not believe, words he doesn't want to think exist. He tries to twist their meaning with great futility; there is only one meaning that they can take:

Sly Cooper is dead.

Of course, that's how it's been for ten long years, but it's not what they knew.

"I'm here." She repeats softly again. Alex drops the evil papers without a care and tightly clasps his hands around Erin, both wrapped in the same belated grief. Alex's break down is more emotional than Erin's, he has no care for staying in control, not a care in the world to hide his feelings. He lets it all go whilst Erin offers a shoulder to cry on. Time passes, they don't know how much, but it's enough… enough to finally silence the grief and the tears and the woes as they come to terms with their new reality.

Yet somehow, Interpol considers them highly dangerous. It's hard to see so when they're like this.


	25. Interdependance

**Chapter 25 – Interdependence**

"So… you thought you were close. You thought you were so, so close."

It's hard to see anything when you're blindfolded, it's hard to move around when you're imprisoned in a claustrophobically small sealed room. This is because her prison is a hole in the ground with a concrete roof that has to be craned away when something or someone is to be put inside. The room itself is entirely pitch black with only the echoing sound inside designed to disorient her and give a false sense of scale. She could easily take the blindfold off, but in this darkness, she would lose it if she did touch it.

"Your biggest mistake Charlotte, is that you opened you mouth. It's all that was needed to further prove that you were the rat, the informant that ruined what was supposed to be a simple operation. I had multiple teams there and somehow they managed to fall into your hands, I had the odd comprehensively stacking in my favour and they still went into your hands; I don't know how you knew but destroying all of the vehicles… I need to be less complacent."

It sounds like he's moving around at a rapid pace around her with the pitch changing at the same queasy pace a ship would rock at sea.

"The fact that you are still a minor doesn't concern me; you are an Interpol agent, nothing more, nothing less. But I will give you some credit in that you got into their inner circle so easily, it tells me that they need more work; more training. But, everyone's got a value, and their trust was worth £1.8 million. Nice job turning my pieces of paper into pounds by the way, they must really trust what your doing."

She gets to the edge of the underground chamber, and feels the smooth metal chain linked grate which covers what seems to be a wall of speakers that cover the walls.

He turns off the modulation so he can have a proper conversation.

"You've seen me face to face, you know I like money and also, have a lot of it as well. But, for all of my wealth, there are things that I want which I can't buy… what a shame that is; it would have made it so simple. I've tried to buy intangible things… loyalty, trust, respect; with varying degrees of success. I've paid off a sizeable portion of criminal organisations in Europe, they all work for me, and I get a share of their profits much like any reasonable investor would expect. I say almost, because, sadly, there is a lot of bad blood in the past between the gang you tried to cozy up to and myself. I wouldn't have stood in their way as they expanded their legacy whilst I did mine, it could have worked out perfectly. I planned for when they would say no, what I didn't plan on is a successful Interpol infiltration in the Cooper gang! And now, I am forced to figure out what to do with you." He explains taking a deep breath at the end to calm himself down.

"If I was to offer… £5 million…"

"Bribing an officer of the law?" Charlotte replies sarcastically. "That'll only extend your jail time, not that it needed extending; being in the hundreds of years."

"On the contrary… I haven't done anything wrong. Unlike in real incorporated organisations, I don't have the same accountability standards. As a result, nothing ever gets to me. You can get close… but never close enough."

"I got within metres."

"Now, I don't want to start a war between us, not you; I mean Interpol, your rivals Europol and every other law enforcement agency who dares and inevitably fails to stop me. In fact, these aforementioned agencies should realise what I am trying to do here. I am doing them a favour; I have brought everything under one roof, my roof."

"So it's easier to arrest you all!" Charlotte shouts unsure if he will hear her, but knowing that she is defiant perhaps might unsettle him.

"What?" He asks jokingly, hearing her faintly through headphones attached to a computer on a desk that's completely out of place in the clean basement level that would usually be filled with cars in this apartment complex of his; one of more legitimate investments. The tiny disorientation chamber is hidden underneath a parking bay, the finish is flush, no one can tell a difference. He just has a desk in the adjacent bay, watching her on infrared camera on a computer monitor with the sound coming through set of headphones. Even though he's closed off this level because of a 'burst water main', he still is taking precautions against accidental discovery of the true nature of this place. 6 guards protect him, even though there is no immediate threat.

"I'll adjust the sound… there. Now you are free to shout all you want."

There is silence, silence that he takes pleasure from hearing; knowing her fight has left her.

"No resistance now?" He asks. "That's a pity. I'll have to continue to do all of the talking. Now, I want you to do something for me. After I let you out, you will go back to Interpol, and tell them… or ask them… what has happened to crime in the last 3 years? I don't mean petty crime, but organised crime. Before, there was no respect, no nobility, no promises kept, no comradery at all; everyone was behaving awfully. Before, you would be dead tomorrow if you didn't pay your debts today; it was barbaric to put it kindly. So, I can began to clean up all this mess which lay in the power vacuum and reassembled it into a well oiled machine; A machine which doesn't try to attack itself if one of it's parts is faulty. Now, people can make promises to each other that actually mean something. The most important thing I have done is restore trust between everyone. If someone deals with me, and I promise that I can do something at a certain time, at a certain price; then it will be done at that price, at that time, exactly as they want. So, if you want to capture me, take me away and put me in a prison; think about what you are doing. Do you want to see criminals return to their barbaric ways like it was only a few years ago? Or do you want to keep it the way it currently is? With everything done as it should be done."

Silence, no reply from Charlotte.

"Nothing? Still no fight? Still nothing to say? Very well." He comments back to her. "One more thing, and I don't like giving you spoilers, but I feel that I wouldn't enjoy it as much if it didn't. So, I have something special planned, something which can't be stopped…because it's already started."

He makes a hand signal to a subordinate who pulls on a lever to lift the concrete slab using an electromagnetic winch embedded in the wall. It moves up to a 45 degree angle to allow Charlotte to leave by herself, but she's not doing so.

"Get up, get out of here!" Jeremy shouts playfully at her, standing up from his desk. He calms down to give instructions to his subordinates.

"Get her out of there, but watch out; she's playing dead." Jeremy says, already picking out the possible ploy she is doing. Three of them surround the exit and one goes to drag her out. She does not react apart from standing up on her own weight. She assesses the possibility of taking out the 4 guards that tower down on her but then strikes that out.

"Escort her out of here, and make sure to face inwards in case she decides to attack inside the elevator." Jeremy instructs. Once she is out of sight, he turns to the remaining two people left, both of whom are not guards but much higher up in the food chain, his own inner circle.

"So... How is everything on your ends?" Jeremy asks both of them

"Everything is set, the plan is in motion already."

"As is on my end."

"Good, we proceed as normal." Jeremy insists as the two walk away to the elevator to go their respective set up locations for this extremely audacious heist he has planned. There is only one other thing missing from this picture, more of a personal touch which Jeremy has failed to apply.

_All this would have been easier… if the Cooper gang just went along with me._


	26. On the Rebound

**Chapter 26 – On the Rebound**

**Kensington, London, England. 8:21pm, 7****th**** November 2032.**

***(Contains Drug References)***

Another long shift, connected to all parts of the world to do his bit in saving the lives of people, has ended for Tim Mcsweeny. Another night alone in his house, still getting used to having it to himself again. He walks up the steps to get out of the rain and to unlock the door but he can hear voices inside, voices that he doesn't know of. Are these people getting revenge for what Alex has done?

"Hello?" The walrus shouts into his own house.

"It's us!" Erin shouts back from inside. This settles his nerves and allows him to enter with the knowledge that he's not being broken into. He hangs his overcoat on a conveniently placed hook mounted on the wall.

"You didn't tell me you'd be…" He begins to explain as he turns around to see two others sitting at the table. "Are you friends of Erin's?"

"We're studying some documents together here, there was a fire at Erin's place so she took us here." Answers the quick thinking Matt.

"Well… I'm sorry to hear that Erin. Looks like you'll be here tonight. I'll get spare bedroom sorted out." Tim says, starting to walk up the stairs.

"It's okay, we're going out soon. We'll be fine." Erin replies. Tim stops and returns to go down the stairs to see Alex sitting down at the far end of the table, it is a surprise to see him here.

"Alex? D'you come here as well? Out of money again? Come to accept my job offer?" Tim asks as he moves towards the four of them. Matt begins to shuffle together the more sensitive documents he thinks that they don't want him to see.

"No, I heard about the fire so I came down to help. I'm not broke either." Alex notes, looking uninterested at the documents on the table.

"I hope your not saying that out of pride, sometimes you need to swallow it and do what's best for yourself. I know this is what you want to do and that you think it's the only thing you can do. But you can surprise yourself by seeing how good you are at something else; something you can fall back on with some stability." Tim explains as he opens his phone to check on Alex's bank balance. He is immensely surprised with the 6 figure sum sitting prettily inside. He takes a look at Alex just to make sure there isn't anything which seems to have changed about him, that amount of money can't just appear like that. It's a look of confusion that Alex can see.

"I'm not broke." Alex repeats.

"Apparently not." Tim agrees with a wide degree of surprise. "Okay, I'll uh… let you get to it."

The walrus continues into the kitchen to reheat a meal for dinner.

"We should head off somewhere." Erin says quietly. "Any thoughts?"

"We could try a hotel room." Matt answers. "You've got the funds."

"What about that empty hideout place you showed me near your apartment?" Alex answers. "That should be empty, shouldn't it?"

"Okay." Erin answers, getting out of her seat to tell Tim of the news. "We're going out."

"Okay, bye." He replies. Erin packs the sheets back into the envelopes and places them in her backpack next to the Thievius Raccoonus. They all pack up and leave within a minute, heading towards the nearest tube station.

"Was that your father?" Tyson asks in amazement. "He's let himself go a bit."

The other three stop and turn to him in confusion.

"You're not seriously that dumb, are you?" Matt asks, just to be safe.

"Of course not, I really had you all fooled there." Tyson replies. Matt is not pleased, sarcasm is about as invisible to him as Alex can be.

"Ooookay then." Matt replies. "Hey, I've just thought… your dad is a doctor." Matt asks, but he gets the feeling that he shouldn't use the term 'dad'. Not because it's legally incorrect, but because it's biologically incorrect. "…Um, Tim is a doctor, couldn't he make some sense of those medical documents? He could tell you what they mean."

He gets silence back, because he is trying to probe the very… particular relationship that Alex and Erin have with the walrus. Matt decides to keep quiet and not run the risk of offending the very people that he wants to be with. The rat doesn't want to be alienated, it's his dream to this, a dream he doesn't want to end.

They push on their journey, taking the underground to an above ground station that allows them to take a train headed towards Oxford. Even though for most of the journey there is hardly anyone else to accompany them for any part of the journey, they don't talk much to each other. Everyone in this group has their own agendas to deal with, each figuring out what to do next. Erin wants her stuff back, Alex is trying to survive, Matt is trying to hang on and Tyson is hanging on for the ride without a care.

Erin is leading the way, down a street she has been down many times through the same small shopping strip to the one shop that hasn't been rented out and has naturally fallen into disrepair. She expects it to be empty since she doesn't know what has happened to it's occupants; namely, herself and the other four members of her group who have disappeared somewhere. Tonight though, someone is inside; they can tell from the small amount radiant light coming from the top blocked out by a set of freshly installed blinds.

"I'm going to see who it is." Erin says to the group before running slightly ahead to get the boost she needs to climb up to the overhang that splits the top and ground floors. She crouches down as low as to stay below the window ledge to see who is inside. Inside, there are no printers or building items which used to be strewn around the place in a semi organised fashion. This was where she would crash with her friends, build stuff mainly using already made plans from the internet and then sell them online for a profit. It was a little side business to supplement her own dealings. Now, a new business has moved in. The windows have been painted over with grey paint so she can't see a thing apart from the ambient glow and the front door now has been locked from the inside. The 'for lease' sign now has a sticker running across it to show that it has been rented out.

"The windows are painted over from the inside." She comments down to the group as she herself gets down. "We'll have to go to the back entrance."

"Wait." Matt interjects as he puts down his backpack to get out his computer. "If they've done all of these things, then perhaps they have some more security measures; ones which I can hack into."

He looks for a Wifi signal for this building but doesn't find one.

"Maybe not, it was worth a shot." Matt answers before packing up his stuff and catching up to the others who are walking around the block to get to the back.

They approach a small concrete paved lane that's curve in a V shape with a drain in the centre for the rainwater. They are walking down this lane, but Erin spreads her arms wide to prevent anyone from moving further in front her.

"Security cameras." Erin says, looking at the two cameras installed directly above the door that are facing in either direction down the lane.

'They must be hardwired." Matt comments, knowing they weren't accessible remotely.

"We should back away." Alex says, already half turning away to leave the laneway. Matt is already searching through his bag for something as they all walk away. They turn around the corner and are hidden from the cameras by the two storey brick wall of the houses facing the other way on the block.

"What should we do?" Tyson asks. "There no way we could get down the lane undetected."

"And what's the point of taking this place back if someone else has already moved in with all of this hardware? Chances are your friends knew this and ran off to go somewhere else." Matt theorises. "We should go back to your apartment and think about what to do next."

"I still think that skunk has something to do with this." Alex comments, going on a hunch he's feeling. He hears rushed footsteps coming towards them from the laneway. "Someone's coming."

Everyone begins to start to run down the street away from the main road apart from Matt.

"What are you doing?" Alex whispers in worry. "We need…"

"Listen." Matt says and waits cupping his hand over his ear for the distinctive sound he's hoping for if this new device has worked properly. He hears the sound of a body falling on the concrete.

"Music to my ears." He comments.

"You killed him?" Tyson asks.

"He'll be out for 15 minutes max." Matt says. "We should go around the other side so we don't fall victim."

"What did you do?" Erin asks in amazement. Matt pulls out a small white plastic box that has obviously been 3D printed since it's so perfectly fitted to the 7 remaining objects inside. They look brown like stock cubes, each about 2cm in length, width and height.

"Stink bombs." Matt shows the group as they walk along. "Very useful, activated simply by dropping them from at least 2 metres high, disperses quickly and knocks out anyone who comes near it."

"I thought your 'suppliers' couldn't be contacted?" Alex reminds him.

"I thought so too." Matt answers. "Tyson and I were on our way to meet you guys in London. I don't know exactly when it happened but somehow they got put in my bag when I was walking along. But the strange thing is my bag was never unopened from when we got off the train till when we got to your house. I could almost swear it was one of you two who did this because I didn't feel a thing and Tyson didn't see a thing. Do you know anyone who can do that?"

"How did you know they were stink bombs if no one told you anything?" Alex asks.

"It came…" Matt says as he searches for it inside his crammed backpack. "…with a note." Which he displays to Alex.

"You said those exact words." Alex notices as he starts to read it. "Stink bombs, Very useful, activated simply by dropping them from at least 2 metres high, disperses quickly and knocks out anyone who comes near it. You remembered all of that?"

"My memory's okay." Matt comments too modestly.

They reach the other side of the laneway where they can just see the body lying in the darkness with no one coming to see anything; perhaps he was working on his own inside that place.

"Don't we have the same problem, just from the other side?" Erin asks, looking down the laneway, facing the same problem of getting past the security cameras as before.

"I thought that if there was anyone else left they'd come out and take care of their friend, it would flush them out, but that didn't eventuate." Matt explains. "We can do this later, I can possibly get some EMP grenades which can take them out temporarily so we can…"

Matt realises something is wrong around him.

"Where's Alex?" Matt asks, looking around.

"Up here." Alex waves from the roof of the two storey attached houses opposite the shops.

"You would do that." Matt responds back in his semi-frustration that his plan has been shot down, but for a good reason because this way is quicker, simpler and generally better.

"Just wait there." Alex instructs before he heads across the rooftops.

"Is this a regular thing he does?" Matt asks to Erin.

"What do you think?" Erin replies, watching for her brother to appear in the laneway. She waits for a few seconds before seeing Alex leap down from the roof to right in front of the door, the blind spot of the camera system. He then takes out his cane, swings it out in his hand and cuts the cables running from the cameras using the hook of his cane. He gestures with his hand to get them to come to him as he looks towards the door to figure out how to open it. Just doing that little course of climbing and jumping down, even grasping the cane and using it felt good. It's given him a mild confidence boost in his head; his ability was never in question. Meanwhile, the group rushing towards him is figuring out what to do next, but Alex has already unlocked the door before they arrive. He's on a rush, no time for thinking, just straight to the action.

But he doesn't fling himself straight into the building, he slowly opens the door so that it doesn't squeak or give away his position. Alex couches down low and begins his sneaking up the stairs slowly. Erin waits outside, along with the rest of the group.

"How many greens we got?"

"About 2000."

"Red?"

"Around 350."

"Keep it up or we won't make the quota."

Greens and reds are the street terms for a duo of recently underground alcohol drugs which are designed to work together. Like traffic signals; green is for go and red is for stop. Green is basically a concentrated solvent form of alcohol which is added to any drink to make it alcoholic after it is dissolved into a liquid. Each green is 10g of pure alcohol, or one standard drink, so naturally it's the more preferred option to sell. But, the red is almost essential; a green is almost always accompanied by a red. It ends the effects of alcohol in less than 5 minutes to bring the person back to being sober, allowing them to exit a party as if they never walked in. Why is alcohol on the underground? Taxes. Tax has kicked alcohol into a realm for the rich, tax is into the thousands of precent compared to the actual cost. Operations like this are not affected by such taxes and therefore can make a sizeable profit margin whilst still being relatively cheap. There is an exact product available legally, but it's much more expensive. It is the perfect business to invest in, if the illegality doesn't faze the investor.

Alex takes a tiny peak around the corner, he sees the two workers focused on nothing but production. He sees the plastic bags and the tiny distillers near the wall but what surprises him most is the small stack of money; not because of the amount but because of it's look. They have, in their possession, the Le Paradox currency. It seems to charge Alex with an irrepressible need to steal something from them with the hope that he could dent the skunk's operations; I only by a small amount. He sneaks in like a shadow inside the room and takes all of their money, most of it in the underground currency, a tiny amount in more widely acceptable cash. He takes a look at the pills but decides to leave them alone, he's not planning on hosting a massive house party any time soon; 300 people can't fit into Erin's apartment; and Alex is not ready to send a message to Le Paradox, he's not even thinking about that at the moment; his entire focus is now on getting out, which he does as silently as he went in.

"What's inside?" Erin asks eagerly.

"Drugs." Alex replies. "But, they've got this."

He shows them the odd wad of money that they have seen before.

"We should go." Erin instructs to Alex. "You did just steal a wad of money, fake or not."

"Perhaps that's a good idea." Alex comments before he takes off along with the rest of the group, running away from the scene as if they were being chased, which they weren't simply because they never noticed until they were gone from complete sight. Even the guy who was knocked out later woke up and simply went back to work, wondering why he was out in the open lying down on the ground. Perhaps it were the pills.

**9:03pm, Erin's Apartment**

"Do you know what this means?" Matt asks to the rest of the group as he stares at a note bearing Le Paradox's constantly staring face like they are staring off each other.

"You're the smart guy." Tyson replies as he is doing sit ups against the wall next to the tiny bathroom. "Tell us."

"You should know, he only told us two." Matt responds back.

"When was this?" Alex asks.

"You planned this, remember. We went to Paris after Alex found Jeremy's location, turns out he was there himself. I wasn't joking when he made that offer."

"I didn't think you were." Alex responds.

"Anyway, he threatened to stop you from doing any heists whatsoever. The very fact that you've done this contradicts that." Matt explains. "This means that he's arrogant, all talk no action kind of guy. But at the same time he's overly cautious; he has at least enough guards around him to outnumber his opponents. He had at least 10 guards just for me, Tyson and Jess."

"Where is Jess?" Erin wonders.

"She had… to run off… somewhere." Tyson says between reps. "A note… It said… run."

"I don't know what's happened to her. She got this hidden note and then she took off, maybe someone from her past wants to get some unpaid debts; perhaps that's why she was working with us." Matt explains in more detail.

"Just us four then now?" Alex asks.

"Hopefully it'll be eight if my gang shows up." Erin notes.

There is a silence as they each wait for someone else to talk. It symbolises their lack of direction, which Matt intends to direct since he's the string puller in this group.

"What should we do next then?" Matt asks.

"Kill Jeremy Le Paradox." Tyson answers immediately; an answer that is brutaly harsh.

"Taking it too far there." Matt comments.

"Isn't that how you would get rid of him forever?" Tyson asks; now proceeding to do some tricep pulls.

"Zero body count, right Alex?" Matt reminds him.

"Um… yeah." Alex replies hesitantly.

"Wait… do you…want him dead?" Erin asks softly.

"No." Alex replies immediately, automatically even. "He's just been treading on my nerves like it was a footpath or something. It's annoying, this sort of conflict is what my dad faced ages ago, only it was with Le Paradox's father."

"I guess he won." Matt replies. "If you two are standing here right now."

"What I don't get is why he seems to be hell bent on us, like he thinks we're some huge threat to him even though… I guess, we're not much." Alex explains, it also gives Matt a brilliant idea.

"Firstly, you're too modest. Secondly, that is brilliant!" Matt exclaims.

"Being…" Alex begins to reply automatically, but he silences himself, realising his retort was going nowhere. "Whatever, just say it."

"He says we are a huge threat, but I doubt that he thinks that we actually are as a big threat as he says we are. His main weapon he's trying to use against us is his mouth, he doesn't seem to have any physical ability which means, if he wasn't surrounded by a whole bunch of guards every time, he could be contained. Now, his next big strength is his money, he literally throws it around like he doesn't care. What we should do next if we are going to actually go after this guy is to find out how he's got so much money and take it away from him."

"Isn't that were those, gangs come into play. Like he gets a cut from them for the business they do." Alex answers.

"No, that's how he's doing it now. We have to know what he did to make money before he was dressed in suits that are worth more than the monthly pay check of most workers. He's the son of a thief, but he doesn't have any obvious physical ability. So chances are he's done it in some way that doesn't make him go and physically pull an actual heist. Therefore, if he's a manipulator, he's probably doing something smarter than that; something less obvious." Matt wonders out loud. "Any ideas?"

"Extortion?" Alex guesses blindly, but Matt; being Matt, has another idea.

"No, better than guessing." Matt says, pulling out his laptop. "If he's as rich as he says he is and he's a criminal mastermind, he's probably got a private jet."

"He _does_ have a private jet." Alex remembers back from when they were in Romania. "It must have been at the Constanta airport at the same time we were there."

"Perfect!" Matt exclaims. "Did you see a call sign on the tail?"

"I didn't see it, but it's the only way he could get from Romania to Switzerland and to catch me out." Alex explains.

"He saw the vault?" Erin asks.

"What vault?" Tyson asks.

"I could have got him then." Alex says. " Maybe I should have."

"Okay, on that particular day there were 58 planes taking off or landing there."

"He would have taken off… directly after or sometime close to when I did." Alex thinks out loud.

"Makes sense." Matt says. "Okay, from these flight records I have his plane's call sign which I can now use to see where this plane is in the world."

"Incredible." Erin complements. The way he has gone from such a tiny amount of information to making such a profound discovery is brilliant.

"Beat me to it." Alex says.

"The plane is in transit, planned route is from Paris to Washington D.C." Matt reads out from his computer.

"What's in Washington D.C. that he'd want?" Alex asks.

"That's an impossible question, it could be anything."


	27. The Vertical Drop

**Chapter 26 – The Vertical Drop**

**Oxford, London. 7:54am, 8****th**** November 2032.**

Even in this age where technology has an iron grip on the world, with it's flashing screens and easy access to just about anything on earth, Alex still reserves a place for the sunrise. There is always something so beautiful and magical about seeing the glowing orb of constantly fusing hydrogen exactly one astronomical unit away rise from below the horizon, regardless of the place. Seeing the darkness turn to light so gradually that you couldn't figure out if and when the brightness changed or the shadows moved positions, it just seemed to happen. This love of this particular sight is easy for someone of Alex's qualities to experience. When he was a child, it would be from the top of a pine tree when he was separated from the concrete jungles of the world. Now, he finds the tallest building nearby and sits on the roof much like this morning. Having gone to the top of Erin's building and with his sleeves drawn to their maximum length, he's now sitting against a central heating system and using it's warmth to help him ward off the old as he stares out into the distance.

"May I join you?" Matt asks. Somehow he just knew he'd be up here on the roof of all places. Maybe the raccoon has vertigo, he thinks.

"Why are you up here?" Alex asks softly, like he doesn't want to disturb the sun, or himself.

"Why are _we _here? Why is everything …out there?" Matt asks, purely to have some fun.

"I don't know." Alex answers, even though Matt wasn't intending for an answer to be given. "Maybe…"

"I, didn't want answer. I was just messing around." Matt replies before sitting himself down on a vacant section of the roof cross-legged.

"I tell you, I've seen the sun rise at least, 100 times and it never gets old. Each time is as mesmerising and as spectacular as the last. The high up I am, the better it looks. The absolute best, best time I've seen it was in the middle east, in Abu Dhabi. It was from the very top of a skyscraper that was under construction. It must have been about 500 metres tall at least. I climbed so many sets of stairs I can remember the pain of it all in my legs. I got to the highest level but the sun was about to rise, so I was about to sit down and then I saw the crane, which went even higher. So, even though my body said no, I pushed on to the very tip of the crane, to the absolute highest point and the view was that much sweeter for it. Being that high up, all of the cars, and the traffic, and the noise all seemed to evaporate before it even got up to me. That was until some construction workers spotted me… but that's a different story." Alex recounts.

They both stare across the town, over the countryside, and across to where the colours go from orange at the horizon to light blue and to darkness behind them. It all feels wrong now for Alex, that something is just not right about the situation; something in the ambience around him has changed for the worse.

"I should go inside." Alex says, suddenly feeling disinterested in the sight. "I haven't eaten yet."

Matt doesn't say anything, but his mind is probing for a reason. He wonders if he has violated some sort of sanctity that Alex has or perhaps he simply wanted to be on his own. In any case simply follows him back down to the cramped apartment where the floor had become the bed for Matt and Tyson.

"We should head off to the US soon if we want to figure out what Le Paradox is up to." Matt explains as they both walk down the stairs. Alex doesn't respond, but Matt can tell what he's thinking from the look on his face. It's a dejected, almost defeatist look which Matt wants to snap out of him. Unexpectedly, he pushes the much taller and stronger Alex against the wall.

"Don't you see what he's doing to you?!" Matt explains harshly. "He's breaking you down, crushing your spirit, and you can't let that happen! He wants to have us under control this way. We, and especially you, have to prove that he's wrong. You're not going to make it this easy for him. You will prove that, for all of his money, for all of his power and for all his guards; they're worthless because you have something which can defeat them all!"

There is silence as Matt waits for Alex to hopefully complete the sentence; but he's lost, confused in it all.

"Hey!" Matt says, snapping his fingers in front of the racoons face. "It's you! They can't stop you from being Alex Cooper."

"They could if they brainwashed me." Alex comments. This infuriates Matt, it's the negative attitude which hurts him the most.

"You've GOT to stop this!" Matt instructs. "Where was that guy who appeared on top of that roof last night? Where was that guy running across London rooftops with ease? He was much better you because he was happy, he was skilled but most of all, he believed that he could do whatever he wanted. It's really surprising…" Matt says before he begins to walk down the stairs, when he gets to the bottom, he finishes his sentence.

"…he looked a lot like you!"

Alex takes a deep hard think at himself. He's got all of these people around him who want him to succeed, but he's slowly shifting away from that group. His inaction is now impacting deeply on the one's closest to him, those one's who believe he can reach into all of his potential and become the best. How many motivational speeches does it take for him to snap out of this rut he's put himself in? Not enough.

_He's right…I know he's right but… I'm not going to be the best. I'm not going to be better my dad or even anyone before that. They're all legends… infamous in their own right. Dad saved the world at my age, and I'm just a kid who can't even save himself. _

"Then when does it stop?"

He didn't realise that he said that out loud.

_Maybe Antonio has answers, if he's the expert; and where's he been anyway? He probably doesn't care as much as he says._

Alex trudges slowly down the stairs, lumbering with every downward stride absent of the more traditional lightness of feet he would usually display unconsciously. He thinks about contacting Antonio, wondering why he hasn't got back to them about the location of Le Paradox. Where are the diamonds he promised or the rise to the top he inferred at? Just like himself, he thinks, he is a let down. Alex gets halfway down the last flight of stairs before he halts, he doesn't want them to see him in such a poor mental state; if anything it gives him a reason not to allow himself to viciously implode and give away all of his ability, talent and promise that his friends hope he can use. One reason is enough to stop him from doing so. He forces his way to the door… but he can't open it. Not because it's locked, but because… he just won't allow himself inside in such a state. He's so frustrated that he can't stop it himself that he wants to punch a hole through the wall; he wants to shout so loud that everyone is woken up; but he is forced to internalize all of his anger, frustration and rage for the opposite reason. He will not allow himself anymore to get other people to be adversely affected by his actions.

There is nothing more that he would like than to find a dark corner where no one could see him and just hide in it; but he can't settle for more than to lie down on the floor and face the wall and look at how the paint on the walls is of a higher standard than he is. He reaches out with his ungloved hand and feels the subtle texture of the plasterboard wall, because… it's the only thing he can do. Reduced to nothing but a blithering and blubbering mess. He doesn't know how long he lay down on the ground for; doing it makes it feel like an eternity. It could easily have felt like it was an hour or even a whole day when it's only about 2 minutes. The only thing that gets him up is when the door to Erin's apartment opens and Tyson walks out and nearly trips on the unseen obstacle being Alex's legs. Tyson uses his feet to feel out where Alex is.

"He's out here." Tyson says to inside the apartment.

"That didn't take long." Erin comments from inside the flat.

"Come on." Tyson says, bending down to carry him inside by the ankle. "Let's get you inside."

Alex is dragged in effortlessly by the tiger, both because dragging Alex is a minor workout for Tyson and the fact that Alex doesn't put up any resistance. Tyson drops his leg once he's pulled him inside.

"This'd make a great mime." Tyson comments, but the other are not too keen on taking the funny side of it.

"Alex?" Matt asks. Alex doesn't respond and Matt instantly fears the worse. The hard thing for the rat is to figure out where all of his body parts are, there's nothing for him to aim at. It's like trying to find someone in the pitch black darkness. Matt bends down with outstretched arms and touches down on his torso before feeling upwards toward his neck to feel for a pulse, which to his relief he finds.

"Alex, speak to me." Matt says with worry, he hopes that he hasn't gone into such a poor state because of what he said; it would definitively crush the rat.

Meanwhile, Alex is going through the permutations in his head of doing something which he never considered an option throughout all of his life. Something so… weak and cowardly it would surely cement his place amongst the dustbin of thieves.

"I can't take it." Alex says weakly, like a combination of being half asleep and lethargic. He wants to say those next three words… he so desperately wants to say those next three words. With the three people staring down on him, it silences Alex momentarily. But he has to do this… it's the only step he thinks he can take. In one brief moment of defiance, even if he is defying himself, he makes known his next intention.

"I…give up."

The traditional simile to describe what they felt next would be something akin to a car crash, but that is not adequate. If all of the nuclear bombs went off in the world, the sun went supernova and the universe imploded; we'd only be part way there. Winning roulette 100 times in a row, tossing a coin and getting it correct a million times in a row was more probable in Erin's mind than hearing what she just heard.

Her initial reaction is simply that she doesn't accept it. He's just acting off, that's all.

"Say it again." Erin challenges, she wants to hear him affirm his decision before she takes any further action. When all she hears is silence, she decides to act. What she does next is about as improbably out of character as what Alex has just done. She lashes out at her own brother or of sheer anger, not even Tyson can hold her back. She is utterly offended by what she has heard.

"Get up!" She shouts at Alex as loudly as she dares. "I'm going to punish you until you regret that decision!"

"Get! Up!" She repeats. But she can't hear him or see him. She kicks him again, and again, and again. The abuse would have continued until she had petered herself out had she not been defied by the weakest person in the group.

"Stop!" Matt shouts, his voice packed with desperation, pointing his Taser gun at Erin in the cramped apartment room. "I won't let you do this to him! He may not be able to stand up for himself, but I will! You hit him one more time and I'll shoot, I won't hesitate."

If there ever was loyalty, look no further.

"Okay… put the gun away." Erin calmly asks, composing herself back to normal.

"How could you do that? To your own brother?" Matt asks, still pointing the Taser at her despite most of her anger being gone.

"Being a master thief is his dream, I won't allow him to give it up so easily. He'll be wasted if he's chained behind a desk, because he is a natural born thief and that's what he's best at. I did it for his own good." She explains. Matt slowly holsters the pistol into the pocket of his pants and looks around for what to do next now that the dust has somewhat settled. Matt understands the reasoning behind the harsh tone that Erin has adopted in dealing with her brother, so he decides to take a similar stance with a much more docile attitude.

"Food." Alex says weakly.

"Alex, I know you're hungry, it's your responsibility to get it for yourself, which means you'll have to get off the ground."

"I'm calling your dad, and I'm going to tell him that you'll be accepting his job offer." Matt explains. Alex doesn't react because he has gone to sleep from being invisible for too long, which also brings him back to normal sight.

"Did he hear anything I said?" Matt asks.

"Doesn't matter, you did everything you could." Erin complements, whilst at the same time realising that Alex could not have done anything to stop her. This makes her instantly regret her abuse, however she needs to hide and bury it as deep as possible so they can now help Alex. The time to apologise is not now.

"We'll deal with Alex first, it's too cramped in here for us to use this as a hideout for all of us. Tyson, you're going to pick him up and take him downstairs into a taxi, you'll go with him to his dad's house and put him inside. He's asleep because he got drunk, got it?" Matt instructs.

"He got drunk… fine with me." Tyson agrees.

"Alex doesn't drink, or even party that much." Erin notes.

"Any better ideas?" Matt asks as he dials up for a taxi.

"He got drugged?" Tyson contributes.

"Let's stick to drunk… wait, because of those pills. Yes, that's it." Matt says, sure he's got the right excuse now.

"So… he got ruffied?" Tyson says.

"No, just stick to drugged. The walrus is a doctor; he's going to know the difference." Matt explains before calling the taxi.

"I should go with him." Erin says. "To make sure he actually follows through."

"Hold on." Matt says, trying to listen for the person on the other line. "Yes I need a taxi as soon as possible."

"On it's way."

Matt hangs up and puts the phone down, going straight from task to task, not realising who he actually spoke to.

"Now, Tyson, you take him down now. Once that's done, I'm hoping that we could go after your possessions." Matt explains to Erin.

"I'd wait, just until Alex is okay and sorted before we do anything else." Erin insists.

"Okay…" Matt says, seeing that Tyson already is carrying Alex over his shoulder and about to walk out of the door. "…let's do this first."

The three of them go down the stairs, not caring about anyone who may think about this weird situation when they see it. They get to the ground floor, but a taxi is not waiting for them. It's the chauffer with his luxury car gleaming in the morning like it's been buffed to within an inch of it's paint. He stands holding the rear door open with perfect posture.

"Cool taxi." Tyson exclaims as he walks towards it.

"I didn't ask for him." Matt says.

"Nevermind, just get him inside." Erin says. Tyson takes the raccoon off his shoulder and places him gently into the rear seat.

"So, I'll go with him?" Tyson asks for clarification.

"We can't lift him out. Erin you'll go as well. I'll stay here and set up for the heist to find the skunk and get your stuff back." Matt quickly explains, but he's thinking at a much faster pace than either of them. He's already running back inside to the apartment to make sure that his stuff hasn't been stolen since they were outside. Erin goes into the front seat and Tyson sits in the back next to Alex. The first thing he notices is a cool looking VR kit hooked onto the rear seat. Erin is more concerned that Alex doesn't have a seat belt attached as the car pulls away.

"Put his seat belt on." Erin commands. Tyson grabs the buckle and tries to pull it out but it catches because he pulled too hard. He tries to pull it softly but still it catches. Next, he goes in the opposite direction and yanks it as hard as he can, which offer no help.

"It's stuck." Tyson says.

"Pull it softly." Erin instructs.

"I've tried that, it still won't work." Tyson says. However, the chauffer presses one button in an electronic menu and the seatbelt begins to move by itself, reaching around Alex's body and clicking into place, before automatically tightening itself to a comfortable tension.

"That's freaky." Tyson exclaims, Erin is mildly surprised. The chauffer continues driving as if nothing had happened, always with his eyes facing forward regardless of the situation and yet he can see everything happening the in vehicle at any one moment. Now that everything has calmed down, his attention turns back to the gizmo hanging innocently on the back of the drivers eat which he's sitting behind. He looks at the headphones + ski goggles combination and puts it on but all he sees is everything in a darker tint. He takes it off, looks on the VR system for an on button switch and finds it on the side of the headphones. Now that it's working, he places back on his head. The only new thing it shows, floating just behind the front seat in white 3D text stacked one on top of each other is 'Call, Recent, message.'

There is no instructions on how to use it, but the text is so mesmerising and unnatural in how it floats in the air, and stays fixed in it's position inside the car regard of how Tyson moves his head. He can see the sides and on the top or below, and it still floats in the exact same spot. Like a fly approaching a fluorescent lamp, he wants to touch it in order to put his hand through it. He reaches out slowly, just in case it might shock him. When he does touch a word, 'recent' it turns green like a traffic light. The other two disappear and the main word goes to the top before revealing all of the recent messages and calls made, including their identity, length and time. The significant bulk are made to Antonio Regazzoni, but there are some outliers which Tyson doesn't bother to look at, he just remembers that the name rings a bell. He reaches out to the name and touches it, prompting the system to call. The list of recent calls goes away but the single name remains and floats magically over to the centre console along with the jarring aural sensation of a dial tone. There is no picture, but he does hear a voice.

"Sir, with all due respect… no… no... Can't you just overpower them instead of all this hiding? Get it done with quickly… yes… yes of course… everything else is ready... The location of the vault is all that is needed… sorry sir… I'm terribly sorry sir… I'll forfeit some of my portion… you're too kind, really… right you are sir… 24 hours? Make it 12… sorry, 24 it is then."

Tyson doesn't know who this voice is but he was making some other phone call without realising that there was another one in progress.

"Oh… sorry to keep you waiting, that was all part of something unrelated. I am Antonio's personal assistant Rasmus." The broad chested husky explains. "Antonio is not available but I can service your needs in any way."

"Um, who are you again?" Tyson asks.

"I'm Antonio's assistant Rasmus, anything you need I can get."

Erin turns back to see Tyson wearing the virtual reality set before turning back to face the front with caution.

"Um, can you get me… a million pounds?" Tyson thinks, like making wishes to a genie.

"That is something I can't give without his express approval."

The glove box opens automatically in front of Erin thanks to the chauffer, which reveals a set of wireless headphones that will allow her to listen in on the conversation.

"Um… what else can you do?" Tyson asks, confused as to what he should do.

"I can get equipment, locate jobs… anything except handing out free money." Rasmus explains. But Erin seizes upon the opportunity.

"Ask him where Erin Cooper's gang is hiding." Erin instructs.

"Where is Erin Cooper's gang hiding?" Tyson asks.

"Let me check, it may take a bit of time so just wait." He explains. After less than 15 seconds, he comes back into view with an answer. "They're in Central London, Threadneedle street."

"Thanks." Tyson says before he hangs up.

The car continues on into the city, with Erin occasionally looking back apologetically at Alex in his slumber to make sure he is okay, she's lucky that she can't see any bruises on him since Tim will begin to ask questions which she won't want to answer. After some time in the traffic, they arrive at their destination. The chauffer remains as solid and unaffected as Erin gets straight out of the car and helps her sleeping brother out of the car by putting his arm around her shoulder. Tyson comes around more slowly to prop him up from the other side whilst he holds Alex's backpack by the cane. Erin knocks on the door with her free hand whilst she thinks of an adequate way to surround Matt's brief idea in some believability. Some time passes but he's not there, so Erin takes it upon herself to open the door. She looks for a place where a spare key could be found, but Tyson is looking at something more important.

"Look." He says, seeing the cars roll in down the street. Erin turns her head as well and feels the sheer annoyance of what she sees.

"Someone has to get rid of him soon." Erin remarks. His repeated unannounced visits are driving her insane. The two cars pull up to right outside the house with the rear window wound down. As soon as the car stops in the middle of the road, he opens the door and gets out.

"Get him inside, we'll take him someplace safe." Jeremy instructs, moving towards them both. He looks like he genuinely wants to help them out, but Erin doesn't want to take a chance with him.

"Stay away!" Erin scowls at him.

"Please, just get him inside quickly, and I'll take you to your gang." Jeremy offers.

"We already know where they are." Tyson says casually, but Erin wants to stop him from saying it, fearing it would reduce their advantage over the skunk. "You don't need to tell us."

"Don't you want to see your friends?" Jeremy asks. "I thought…"

He underestimated the bad blood between them badly, he has barely enough time to step back away from the two of them. He doesn't see exactly what happened until she stopped moving. She holds the cane which used to be lodged in Alex's backpack in front her, whilst holding her brother up, thrusting it at the skunk to make it back away.

"Go away! Last chance." Erin shouts in desperation, swinging the cane again to show her hostility towards her. The skunk's presence has twinged all of her nerves, almost as much as the nerve she thinks this skunk has to come here at this sensitive time.

"Don't do this, you don't know what you're doing." Jeremy warns whilst he timidly puts his hands up in front of his body to prove how powerless he is in this situation.

"Run!" Erin shouts, she would to beat him to a pulp if she wasn't holding up Alex. "Don't ever come back!"

"I'll come back another time when you're not so angry and when Alex is a bit more awake." Jeremy says more casually as he turns his back on Erin to walk back to his waiting car.

"Hold him." Erin whispers to Tyson as he pushes Alex's arm across to Tyson before turning to sneak up on Le Paradox to send a painful message. She readies the cane and swings it at him as hard as possible, coming in from the side. Even as she swings it the skunk has not reacted, so it with a great surprise that Jeremy has stuck out a hand without looking and grabbed the hook of the cane before he could be struck. He stops momentarily like a statue, with Erin in total surprise, and twists around to face her. Weirdly, he's smiling at her.

"Did you really need to do that?" Jeremy asks disappointedly before having a tiny laugh. Erin tries to tug the cane out of his grip but she discovers his hand is as strong as a vice; he will not let go. "I offer to help you out and all you can think of is violence? If you show violence, then I'll respond with violence; bad, sickening, deathly violence."

His tone reeks of disappointment at such an uncontrolled outburst.

"Now I'm going to let go, okay... and you're not going to try the same thing again." Jeremy warns. He spreads out his fingers, releasing their grip on the cane which Erin slowly retracts back. "I want to help. That's why I came. Please, get in the car… and we can clear the air and sort everything out."

"We don't have to be enemies." Jeremy announces. "We can work together and…"

He can hear the door opening from inside their house, so he stops his little speech and waits, hoping he can add a new dimension to his argument.

"Sorry Erin I was…" Tim begins to explain before he sees the full extend of what is happening right outside of his house. A large tiger holding Alex who appears to be asleep and Erin squaring off against a very wealthy businessman. "What is going on out here?"

"Sorry about that sir." Jeremy replies as he reaches into his jacket pocket. "Minor quarrel, nothing to worry about."

The skunk flings a business card in her general direction before turning around to enter into his car before he is whisked away from the scene like he was never there. Erin picks up the small white piece of thick paper, which contains the address of where he is along with a simple message.

'_Come by 1800 if you want in'_

She wants to tear it to bits but decides against that, the information may help them out later.

"What's happened with Alex?" Tim asks to Tyson.

"He got drugged." Tyson answers.

"Why didn't you call an ambulance?" Tim asks. "You're lucky he's not sick."

"I'm sorry." Erin apologises.

"He's not going to die Erin, he doesn't look that bad." Tim reassures Erin to make sure she won't exaggerate. "Can you um… carry Alex inside and I'll examine him?"

"Okay doc." Tyson remarks as he lifts the raccoon inside along with his backpack and places him on a bed whilst the others follow inside.

"I'll leave you to it." Tyson says before leaving.

"He's not unconscious, but he's deep in REM sleep." Tim says he opens Alex's eyelids to see that his eyes a moving rapidly around randomly.

"Has he been asleep all night until now Erin?"

"Um, no. I think he was up about an hour ago but I don't know." Erin replies, she's thinking it's only a matter of time before Tim realises that what he's seeing does not add up to the explanation he received.

"He's not drugged or poisoned. I don't know why your friend said that, but Alex is asleep… in a very deep sleep if he can't hear us and is not waking up." Tim explains. "When exactly did he go to bed?"

"About 10 last night… but he was awake this morning, he's only been asleep less than an hour." Erin says nervously.

"That can't be right, a person can't go straight into REM sleep… there's various stages he has to go through…" Tim continues to explain… unaware that Erin is getting something out of Alex's backpack. An envelope to explain it all.

"Here." Erin says, holding out the brown paper envelope whilst struggling to make eye contact. "Just read it."

'What's this?" Tim asks.

"We've lied to hide this from you, I hope you will understand why." Erin says, looking back at her sleeping brother half in fear that he won't like this decision and half thinking that this is for the best. "Please don't tell anyone about this, please… please don't tell anyone."

The walrus takes out the first page, Bentley didn't make it easy for anyone to instantly discern the meaning of this paper since it's titled 'Biological removal from the visible EMS'. He scans through it quickly, looking for the word REM, in order to figure out what is happening with Alex.

"The subject will go into instant REM sleep after prolonged period of EMS removal, the time period of the sleep and invisibility vary in proportion to each other but the precise correlation in unknown." Tim reads out. Erin was expecting some huge reaction from her adopted father but he gives none. He could tell that Erin was afraid of a reaction and dealt with it accordingly by staying unchanged; something he's gotten used to in the medical practice when having to tell patients of the various ailments they have contracted.

"Well… the only solution is time." Tim says handing back the papers to Erin. "Right… well, I've got to head off to the clinic now. You keep watch of Alex until he's awake, and when he does, call me."

He leaves the room, leaving only Erin to stay with her brother; lying there on the bed, sleeping…


	28. In the Shadows

**Chapter 28 – In the Shadows**

"He's ready for you."

Alex has been sitting patiently in the waiting room for about 10 minutes, with only these piles of paper stacked on a trolley for company. The walls all exposed and varnished wood, like being on the inside of a wooden box. The floor is a tough and boring beige colour which makes it hard for Alex to drag the wheeled trolley across to the front door of the bosses office; not Le Paradox, but someone of an infinitely higher standing. He opens the cheap plastic door handle and moves into the pitch black empty room on the other side. From the ambient light alone he can tell that the current decors runs out abruptly at the door line; where the carpet stops and turns into a hard, polished white marble floor. At least it makes it easier for Alex to move the trolley on.

He proceeds down the room with the roar of the hard wheels echoing out, giving him the perception that the boundaries of this room are much, much larger than what he expected. He reaches the point where the ambient light from the other room stops, making him stand in total darkness. The door shuts suddenly, causing Alex to naturally turn back in surprise whilst keeping both hands on the hand rail so as to not loss all of his work in the darkness. A few seconds after the door shuts, he distinctly feels different; and a few seconds after that, he sees why.

The lights brighten up only to a dim white glow around the edges of the vast room from the bottom from floor lights spaced one metre apart. He sees himself in the new light; not only is his business shirt and pants been replaced with his usual thieving attire, all somehow without him noticing, but his cane is lying on the stack of papers. He looks up, and sees a lot of edges, spikes, hooks and ropes suspended in the air above him like a massive chandelier. It covers the entire area like a preliminary roof. He looks back down and sees someone behind an ominously thick and large table top that floats in mid air.

"What do you want to see me about?" Sly asks, dressed in his own thieving outfit, balancing on the top of his cane using the ninja spire move. This display only magnifies Alex's incomparability with his father.

"This." Alex says, pushing the trolley ahead of him and letting it roll towards the desk.

"Well let's take a look at it."

Sly jumps off the top of his cane with one leg, flicking the cane upwards with his foot. He flies over the desk, front-flipping, and lands on the other side to stop the trolley with his right hands whilst extending his left arm out to grab his cane without looking as it follows him from behind. Alex can only walk forward with scared footsteps; there's no way he could replicate that or anything like it. He just knows that his work will be worthless when his father examines it; it just won't be up to his standard. Sly picks up one folder and opens it with his right hand to inspect the contents.

"You see here." Sly begins to explain kindly, like he's giving fatherly advice. "If you managed to jump across to this ledge over here, you would have saved at least a minute of time to reach the access hatch."

It all sounds like the only words coming out of his father's mouth are 'wrong wrong wrong wrong…' for Alex.

"Here you could have used an alarm clock to distract them so they move away from the window."

"I can't carry lots of alarm clocks on me, that technique is obsolete." Alex contends

"I agree"

_What did he say?_

"But it works; if it's in the Thievius raccoonus, it works." Sly adds.

"Admit it." Alex taunts.

"What?" Sly asks in confusion.

"You would have done it all differently."

"I wouldn't go that far…"

"Hell, you would probably could just waltz into anywhere and steal whatever you want because you're Sly Cooper; the worlds best thief. All I am and all that I'll be known for is being the son of Sly Cooper."

Sly is taken aback by this accusation; he's hurt by such an attitude. Sly puts down the folder, picks up Alex's cane and walks slowly towards the younger raccoon who's facial expression is becoming less and less self confident the closer the smaller the gap there is between each other. Sly holds out the cane for Alex, just to give it back him.

"You are my son, no one can doubt that. But is that all you are?" Sly asks softly and compassionately.

"I can't be better; you already saved the world from Clockwerk, twice! From Le Paradox once. It's not possible to be better."

"Who said you had to be better?" Sly asks.

"Well… I did." Alex replies. He's backed himself into a corner with this question. There's always been this pressure on him to succeed, to be better than his father. Maybe all of that pressure has been artificial.

"Then… don't be. I know you've got high expectations of yourself and that's good; it means you have ambition. But those expectations are not manageable, they're not sustainable. Saving the world is not something anyone expects to do or even wants to do." Sly explains. "If it does come to that then go, go save the world. But that's not what you have to do."

"Then what do I need to do?" Alex asks to his father, like the meaning of life is only a few sentences away.

"Whatever you want to do, do good; as long as you do your best. If you want to become an office clerk, go be the best office clerk you can be. If you want to be a master thief, then do the best that you can do. If that's all you can give, then no one can judge you otherwise." Sly explains.

"But what if my best is not enough?" Alex asks. "It's always not enough."

"That over there," Sly says, looking back at the papers on the trolley. "It's only 10% of what you can do, I know it, you know it…"

"If you're talking about beating Le Paradox, it can't be done. He's got people everywhere, I'm under surveillance basically every second of my life. There is nowhere that I can hide and no speed that I can out run him. He's got all the money and muscle. I just have a few friends."

"I only had a few friends to help me defeat his father." Sly counters.

"Yeah but you got lucky with the jet passing by." Alex remarks. "I'm not going to be that lucky, he's too well prepared."

Sly pauses, he wants to reverse the negative trend.

"You're saying why he can't be beaten, instead, think about how he can be beaten. Have some confidence in yourself; get some self belief into your system. That's what you need to do more than anything else right now." Sly explains.

"Okay." Alex replies. "Um… he's not that good in a fight. He's doing everything personally, he's exposing himself constantly…"

He spends the next several minutes listing every conceivable weakness, no matter how minor it is. He never realised he could think of so many. Like the figment of his imagination called Sly Cooper said, it did improve his self confidence. Even better than that, he feels like he is on top of the skunk for once. He has got some control over him, simply by having the knowledge of how to go and defeat Jeremy.

"Thanks, for everything." Alex replies.

"Now, go… Erin's waiting for you."

**London, England. 11:14am, 8****th**** November 2032**

Alex reawakens, the first thing he sees is his sister, lying beside him on the bed facing him and watching his face for when he wakes up.

"You're up." Erin says before rolling quickly off the bed and standing up. "Ready to begin work?"

"What work?" Alex asks tiredly.

"You know… because you gave up on being a master thief, you're working for Tim now." Erin explains, still feeling bitter over Alex's actions.

"I didn't say…" Alex begins to complain, sitting up on the bed.

"Shhh." Erin replies. "I've got everything covered."

"What are you saying?" Alex asks confusedly.

"Put these on." Erin commands, handing him a white long sleeve shirt, a pair of jeans and a plain black jacket. "So people don't recognise you."

"Where'd you get this stuff?"

"Once you get those on." Erin insists. "I'll show you what normal people our age do for a living."


	29. Initiative

**Chapter 29 – Initiative**

**Threadneedle Street, London, England. 11:41am, 8****th**** November 2032.**

He knew instantly where the skunk's place of residence was by the two security guards posted outside of the building. He could see that once they saw him, they called to somewhere, presumably to Jeremy, that he was approaching. As soon as the call was finished, all they did was stare at Tyson, watching every single step that he took to move towards them. When he did eventually reach them, not intimidated by all the staring, they walked out of their posts to ask him a question.

"Are you here to see M. Le Paradox?"

"Um…" Tyson says, but the security guards already know the answer.

"Follow us."

The two guards walk ahead, side by side whilst Tyson follows behind like he's being escorted. He imagines himself walking in slow motion, like he's the boss of this place and these are his guards, just because it satisfies his ego. When the guards open the front door, he sees there are more guards stationed inside: two either side of the front door on the inside, three standing in front of the posts next to the elevators and two guards standing either side of the service stairway; and those are just the guards. There are security cameras covering every single blind spot in the room as well as two automated paintball guns in the two far corners that diligently follow Tyson's body, ready to mark him with paint that can't be washed off for 24 hours, making it easy to track would be trespassers. One of the elevator guards turns around and calls the elevator before turning back around to become a statue like the rest of them. When it opens, there is another security guard sitting on a stool, in charge of pressing the buttons, as well as two security cameras inside the stainless steel interior of the elevator. It's a bit cramped for Tyson in the elevator, but he wonders why the skunk needs so much protection. He doesn't think he could take them all out; at least, he's never tried to before. His strength was more for show so he could dominate the gym; putting higher weights than most on all machines and watching as people crowded around, urging him on.

The elevator reaches the top of the building, and yet more guards appear with more security cameras in the tiny room this elevator has lead to. Only 5 metres from the elevator is a toughened opaque glass door with two guards flanking it either side. One guard is already entering the code to unlock it whilst the other is doing the biometric scanning of his retina. He can hear the locking pins deactivate before the door automatically swings open to reveal the juxtapositionally relaxed décor on the inside. There are no guards on the inside of this penthouse, just the hallmarks of a modern interior with straight lined furniture, timber and carpet flooring as well as full exterior glass windows to maximises the view; all of this for one person.

"Welcome to my home away from home." Jeremy greets to Tyson as he rises from the couch.

"Um… welcome to you to." Tyson replies.

"You don't say welcome to me, this is my penthouse. Maybe if I get the chance to see where you are living, then you can say that. But generally, you don't own someone's place when you first walk inside of it, okay?" Jeremy explains.

"Okay." Tyson repli

* * *

es with a hint of confusion.

"So, have you come to tell me that the Cooper gang has accepted my offer?" Jeremy asks with glee.

"Um… I think so? Maybe?" Tyson replies.

"You think so?" Jeremy responds back, his patience thinning by the second. "There's only pregnant, or not pregnant; there is no maybe pregnant."

"But… you're a guy." Tyson replies.

"It was an analogy." Jeremy says, deliberately composing himself to stop himself from blowing his top off. "Do you have a phone? Or a tablet or anything I can use to contact them?"

"Yeah." Tyson replies, looking down at his pocket before looking up to find that the skunk already has it in his hands. "That's not possible."

"What, that I have your phone?" Jeremy asks. "It's just a trick."

"Like a, thief trick?" Tyson asks.

"No."

* * *

**1 Minute Earlier**

Tyson and the two guards walk into the elevator and wait until the doors close. The guard on the stool presses the button for the penthouse before looking at the tiger's pockets for any items that could be used against his employer. He dips his hands into Tyson's pockets and relieves him of his phone before putting it into the standing guards trouser pocket. When the elevator reaches the top, the two standing guards walk out of the elevator. The left guard who has the mobile phone takes it out of his pocket and passes it off through a replaceable hole in the wall to a pneumatic tube system running in the wall and roof. The phone travels in a small container in the vacuum tube around and over the strong room and through to the kitchen where Jeremy was waiting. When the phone arrived, Jeremy received the phone and ran quietly over to the couch to carry on the act.

* * *

"Not even…?" Tyson asks, trying to find the answer.

"It's a trick, don't you get it?" Jeremy replies. "No thief alive can steal from that range, I haven't even come within touching distance of you."

"Maybe…"

"There is no maybe, okay. It is beyond the realm of possibility." Jeremy insists.

"Then… why are we having this conversation?" Tyson asks.

"Because you wanted to know how I got your phone, which made me distracted and now I've forgotten to make the call." Jeremy replies as he searches for the correct contact. He finds Alex's contact but skips over it, he is not the one he is most worried about. He dials for Erin Cooper, waits a few seconds before it picks up.

"So… have" Jeremy tries to say in his usual bravado, but he's annoyed that she has immediately hung up on him. "How rude."

"What did you expect?" Tyson comments.

"Well, can't win them all." Jeremy replies, about to toss the phone back to Tyson, but he holds onto it at the last second. "Actually I might hold onto this if you don't mind."

Tyson looks at the phone in the skunk's hand, then looks at his own hands. He thinks about using them to get back his phone, but the skunk has thought of that as well.

"If you want to punch me until I'm dead, go ahead. I won't stop you, I can't stop you. I mean… I'm shorter, skinnier, and weaker than you. In a fist fight, I would loose in a heartbeat; and that is why there will be, no, fight." Jeremy scowls before pressing a remote inside his jacket pocket. Out of the roof come several automated weapons which all point straight at Tyson.

"One button is for show, the other will turn your body into a colander, then a sieve, and then there will be no body at all." Jeremy scowls angrily again. "So if you dare try to take this phone off me, that is what will happen to you!"

"Fair enough." Tyson casually replies.

"Good." Jeremy responds, reverting instantly back a more charming tone. "Now, let me show you something."

The windows suddenly turn opaque and the blinds automatically block out all of the sunlight. Several lights around the penthouse begin to turn on and an image begins to coalesce in front of the couch.

"Do you know what is also on this street, something of value?" Jeremy asks Tyson, but he gives him no opportunity to answer as the three dimensional schematics of his planned heist come into view. "The Bank of England is within sight of this place, and I intend to make a lot of money using it's resources. In less than 2 days, America will default on it's debt, if only for a few minutes; and because I know that this is going to happen, I can make hundreds of millions, billions even. It's simple when explaining it to you like this, but I assure you that I have it all figured out. As everyone sells their bonds, their treasury notes, their shares and withdraws all their money; I'll be buying it all up at a very cheap price. Then, when the default is over and confidence is restored, I'll sell my assets at a higher price, make profit then buy a lot of gold to store away for a rainy day. The best part of it is that the Bank will personally deliver it's gold to me, I won't have to leave the room." Jeremy explains to Tyson, who's rather dumbfounded at his explanation. Jeremy sees this, but he chooses to continue on.

"The only two real problems I have are both associated with your two raccoon friends. The first is not a huge deal but it wouldn't be the same if they didn't participate themselves in something that would surely put their names up in lights. The second is one of practicality; I need a place to store all of the gold I make from this venture. I need a place that no one has seen and one that it is impenetrable to get inside. You see, they have this vault, this… legendary vault containing much of their loot. But no one knows the location of this vault… or even knows what it looks like; no one except for Alex and Erin Cooper, the heirs to this fortune, which is why I need them to join me."

"Why tell me your plan?" Tyson asks.

"Firstly, you might be swayed by the sheer magnitude of what I am trying to achieve. But really it's because I'm going to ransom you." Jeremy explains flatly.

The blinds quickly move back up and the hologram disappears but the windows stay opaque.

"I'm not letting you leave here until the Cooper's have joined me on this mission. And believe me when I say… you haven't heard a thing yet… this is just the tip of the iceberg. You don't even know half of what could happen." Jeremy warns. He gestures over to a side door next to the kitchen to signal for many more guards to walk out in single file to take Tyson away to his prison.

"I'll walk, don't get them to drag me." Tyson comments, but Jeremy lets the guards stay close in case he's plotting something that is detrimental to the skunk's plans. The guards escort him inside before immediately turning left into another room and away from a flight of wooden stairs with white walls. The room he enters is not like that at all, it is dark, sealed off from the rest of the world lit up dimly by lights in the roof and the computer screens of people working and watching on many things, to many to see at once. What draws his attention most is that he is not the only prisoner inside this room; there are 4 others ling side by side on at the opposite end. He is put in a plexiglass room the size of a shipping container with holes drilled in the roof and walls so they don't asphyxiate themselves. Tyson walks into the clear plastic room. The guards lock the door with a similarly plexiglass deadbolt that's almost 10 centimetres in diameter.

"Who are you guys?" Tyson asks.

"Stupid." One of them mutters quietly.

"Blind"

"Short sighted."

"Greedy."

"Weird names." Tyson comments as he sits down himself.

"No… I'm Toby, that's Karen, Elena and Sam."


	30. Never Normal

**Chapter 30 – Never Normal**

**London, England. 12:06pm, 8****th**** November 2032.**

"I'm sorry, normal people?" Alex questions as they walk down the street. "We're not normal people, we are as far away from that as possible."

"Your right, but I know what… other people our age do for work." Erin answers. She was about to say 'normal people', but changed her mind because using the word normal would be wrong; everyone is different in someway or another.

"I'm think you want me to do this more than I do." Alex says as they walk in sight of the clinic that Tim runs.

"Exactly." Erin answers. "I'm making you do this to show you that giving up being a master thief is the worst decision you will ever make."

"I wasn't giving up, I was…" Alex responds.

"I don't care what you meant, the fact that you said or even contemplated saying it was heart breaking. While you are working in there, I want you to remember to never say that to me, or anyone else, ever." Erin demands.

"You're giving me hell over this." Alex comments as they reach the steps to the entrance.

"Rightly so." Erin responds.

"I know that I deserve it. But my life is difficult and… it's difficult." Alex complains.

"Suck it up, you're not the only one with problems." Erin coldly says before walking away and dialling her phone, leaving Alex to negotiate this next part by himself. He opens the door and sees the small, cramped waiting room to the right with single chairs lined around the wall in the converted house with the reception placed in where he thinks a dining table would have been. He glances briefly at the four patients waiting to be seen as he walks up to the counter, he is the youngest in the room by far.

"Um… Hi." Alex says nervously to the receptionist, who is expecting him to arrive.

"Come around the side here, you need to start as soon as possible." She instructs pointing to the side door on the left saying 'staff only'. Alex steps through it, immediately turning right where the middle-aged receptionist is waiting for him.

"You'll be handling all of the backroom tasks, maintaining records, ensuring we have the right equipment and most importantly, making sure that everyone is adequately stocked up on coffee. If any one of the partners orders something, you go to the café 3 blocks down on the corner and get it from there; they'll know the difference if you don't. Oh, and they don't have drone delivery so you'll have to walk down there yourself." She explains.

"Okay." Alex responds.

"In that case I want a tall long black thanks." She immediately responds.

"Same." An assistant answers.

"Short black, one sugar." A nurse answers.

Alex is having trouble remembering all of the orders being thrown at him in a rapid-fire sequence.

"There… off you go."

"I don't have any money." Alex responds.

"Take 50 out of the till and be off." She responds. Alex walks up to the cash register and searches for the button to open it up, he scans each of the coloured buttons quickly but can't see anything. He turns to ask for help but she effortless presses a few buttons on the screen and a 50 pound note comes out of a small slot just below the bench. Having this system means there is no physical cash register for someone to steal or for someone to empty easily, not that Alex considered doing it in the first place. He takes the note and walks out of the staff area and through the waiting room where nothing has changed and out into the world where the rain has started to fall. He turns his hand around to feel how heavy it is before looking down to his right towards the shopping strip beyond. People are beginning to scatter towards shelter as the rain heaps down; but not Alex. He stands still as he gets wet, looking up at the grey skies above. Even as he is getting wet, he smiles, like he knows that even the weather is punishing his for his actions.

"I guess I deserve that too." He comments to himself before walking calmly down the street, embracing the wet conditions. The journey is itself boring, but predictable; it has some stability. That stability is comforting, knowing that he's not going to be risking so much just for this journey. He reaches the café on the corner and discovers that there is a lengthy line waiting for him that takes up almost all of the standing room inside as people get out of the cold and seek a warm beverage. He stops at the back of the line and looks inside at the very large coffee machine with steam rising out of the top, whirring away as it works frantically to serve everyone. He suspects this will be a long wait.

As he progresses through the queue, which gets longer despite people being served, he looks around at the people waiting around him, mostly business people but there are some women who look like parents, others are just here to treat themselves; and still he is the youngest person in the line when he gets to the front where he's trying to recall all of the orders.

"Hi, can I have two long blacks and…" Alex begins to order, but the sudden surprised and shocked look on the attendant precludes the next event.

"Freeze! You in the black jacket!"

Alex doesn't turn around quickly, not because he was expecting this, but because he's annoyed that he can't simply do anything without the police being on his back. He sees that everyone has shifted across to the walls to get out of the plain clothed officer's way.

"Hands up!" the officer shouts, pointing a Taser gun right at Alex.

_Wait, they can see me?_

"Can you see me?" Alex asks directly.

"Hands on your head!" He repeats.

Alex slowly does what the officer says; resting his palms one on top of the other on his head. The officers slowly advance on him cautiously, expecting the raccoon to fight back ferociously, but Alex doesn't see himself having a chance against them with his bare hands. One has a pair of handcuffs ready and moves around the side to attach both clasps around Alex's wrists. They push Alex out of the shop much to the horror of onlookers who just see the police arresting a teenager for no reason whatsoever, they couldn't even arrest him for queue barging. Once outside in the rain, one opens the rear door of the unmarked police car and the other pushes the raccoon inside. The rear door shuts and the two officers get into the front seats of the car. One tries to start the electric engine, but none of the systems are working; no indicator from the inside to show that the engine is running. He presses the accelerator but the car will not move, naturally their aggression turns to their captive.

"Did you do this?!"

Alex chooses to be silent; the clear plastic grating that separates the two halves creates a barrier, meaning he can't be attacked. Usually it was designed to protect officers from criminals, and now Alex thinks it's protecting him from them.

"He must have EMP'd the car." The officer notes.

A crack comes from behind Alex's left ear. He whips his head around and sees that someone has smashed the side window in. This suited person is breaking Alex out, but Alex is wary of what may happen next. Alex is grabbed by the arms of this person and is dragged out of the vehicle and out onto the street to where there are many onlookers. He quickly glances to his right and sees that two others are holding the doors shut and watching over the police so they don't try anything stupid. Alex is lead into a large black SUV waiting behind with the door already open for him to go inside, even though he's not 100% sure who is doing this. He is bundled into the back and as soon as he is inside, the door is shut and the vehicle speeds away from the scene. Alex is pushed upright by the same person who got him out of the car to see the occupants inside. Weirdly, the seating arrangement is more like a van with the two rear banks of seating facing each other.

"Alex."

The snap of fingers focuses the raccoon's attention.

"Focus."

The Slavic accent of his voice is very noticeable on the short mongoose in his late 20's.

"You're not worried at all?" He asks. Alex doesn't answer the question as he's figuring out whom to trust.

"Good, good. I am Krasić, Ivan Krasić. I work with Jeremy Le Paradox." Krasić introduces.

"Why save me?" Alex immediately asks. As the occupants brace themselves as the vehicle turns around a corner at high speed.

"Whether you like it or not, you represent a significant investment on the part of Le Paradox."

"Investment?" Alex asks in disbelief.

"You really know nothing." Krasić chuckles. "I'll tell you a story."

"You see; I didn't choose the criminal life, the criminal life found me. I was working at a major bank in Paris in La Defense; I liked working with numbers you see, and I was working very late nights just to impress and work my way up. It was in one of those nights where was the last one left, a Friday night I believe, that I first saw Jeremy. He was, in a stark contrast to what he is now, a cleaner." Krasić explains.

That came as a massive surprise to Alex.

"I didn't pay much attention, he was a cleaner of all people. He pulled the cart, which has all of the cleaning materials in front of the restroom, just like I had seen the cleaners do many times often. But, I could see him reaching inside to the rubbish bin on the cart like he accidentally threw something away. I see him take out a computer disk of some sort, like a hard drive and start to walk towards me. I first instinct I recall was to call security, but he was watching me and I was trying to not be afraid so I couldn't. He approached me and started to have a conversation about what I did because, he said he was studying to be an accountant, which I later found out to be a complete lie. Then he couched down and began disassembling the computer next to me, we kept on taking as we both worked. I liked the guy, he had confidence in the way he spoke and worked, like everything he did was planned in advance. Once he put the computer back to normal he turned it on and waited. I briefly glanced across at what he was doing and I could see that it was being hacked into. I began to panic a lit bit, and he knew it. So, in the same confident casual tone, he explained what he was doing."

"He said that he had already done this at all of the major banks in town, he was installing software to stabilise against hacking attempts. So, by hacking into it, he said he would fix the system and make it more secure. But, and I don't think I have done this very often to him, but I found a fault in his plan. I said 'you'd have to do that every computer to fix them all', he said that he was only doing this level. I then said 'you're not the IT staff, they can fix everything from their room; they never come out unless there is a hardware problem. For that brief few seconds, I saw something that only occurs even more rarely in him; him being stuck, forced into a corner. He was looking for a way out and I was about to reach into my phone to call the police, but then he stopped me. He began to explain the true nature of what he was doing, and as his ideas unravelled, I began to realise how brilliant he was."

"What was it? What did he do?" Alex asks eagerly.

"It was brilliant because it was so simple I should have thought it myself. Essentially, on some transactions, the numbers can go to many decimal places. So naturally, we have to take that extra off for simplicity. Where does it go? Now, those tiny fractions of a cent go into his pocket. What was even better is that he'd thought of how to cover it up; since all of the legwork is done by computer, he would trick the computers into thinking that there was no error; everyone would be better off. I initially doubted whether such a scheme would even be worth it, we were taking only fractions of a cent here. But what I remember most was me sitting there thinking, why is he telling me all of this? I was in the process of remembering details about what he was saying when he made me an offer then and there. He took out his phone and showed me his bank account to prove that his method worked; he had a 7-figure sum of money that was nearly 8. He said, 'I'll pay you 1 million euros if you quit your job and work with me.' What I noticed most weirdly is that he said 'work with', not 'work for'. I questioned him further about what I would do because, it was a lot of money, and I worked so hard for that job. But, fighting all my preconceived notions of morality and conscience, I accepted."

The vehicle enters into an underground car park and all of the exterior lighting is replaced with artificial lights.

"All we needed to do was wait in order to become rich, but now, time is no longer on our side." Krasić explains as the car comes to a stop outside the central pillar of the building where the elevators are situated. "Follow."

Alex, Krasić and the legion of guards walk towards an empty car park space.

"We've put in excess of 15 million euros worth into you, and we refuse to let you ruin it by getting arrested or by throwing your life away." Krasić explains as the car park space rises from the ground using two pneumatic rams that raise the concrete slap at an angle, revealing a hidden tunnel. The two of them walk through it, even though Alex wonders where this is leading.

"I don't get it." Alex replies angrily, coming to terms with the news that he's not fully accepting. He refuses to accept the fact that he is 'an investment', even less so that 15 million euros could have been spent on him when he hasn't received anywhere near that amount over his entire life. "An investment? I'm a person."

"I hope for both of our sakes that you will pay off significantly." Krasić comments as they step inside.

"Where are we going?" Alex asks.

"Escaping from the police." Krasić answers as he calmly walks in the underground tunnel that quickly intersects with another tunnel, although this next one is more legitimate than the previous one. Two of the guards remove the metal vent cover away which conceals this tunnel and allows Alex and Krasić to leave. The mongoose moves ahead of Alex inside the dimly lit and narrow service way.

"If you can tell; I handle the financials of the enterprise, Rasmus handles the day to day operations and Jeremy thinks more in the creative department." Krasić explains further as he casually walks through the tunnel as if this has been rehearsed.

"Who's Rasmus?" Alex asks.

"Eventually you'll find out." Krasić explains briefly, walking straight with eyes forward; he knows Alex can't run back otherwise he's trapped. "I'm certain of that."

"I wouldn't be so confident." Alex comments.

"In all my time working in this business, if there is one other thing that is certain, it's that what Jeremy wants, he gets." Krasić explains with a weirdly calm demeanour, as if he is not at all concerned with Alex possibly escaping. The mongoose reaches a service door and opens it, leading straight into a tunnel for the London underground. He looks both ways before stepping down onto the tracks and quickly reaching the other side where there is a door for them to get out of danger and back into the safety of the service walkways.

"He has an obsession with you, he talks about you like he is your best friend. About, how he needs you to work with him instead of against like he said your father did. Mergers reduce competition and increase the profits so I can understand his view point." Krasić explains, not once looking back. He reaches the vent grating for this service tunnel which leads into another apartment building. The mongoose looks back and sees that Alex isn't there. He immediately scans around the area to see if he's hiding nearby and quickly takes out his phone and calls for security.

"He's run into the tunnel. Find him quick before he gets himself into trouble." Krasić sternly instructs. He then quickly runs down to a specific, heavily bolted electricity board and knocks on it at a specific point in the top right corner of the left hand door to unlock it and reveal the secret passage. He steps through the door before it shuts behind him automatically and sees that the guards on the other side are already rushing into the tunnel to look for Alex, going in the opposite direction. Krasić goes out of this comparatively crude tunnel compared to the first one, into a heavily packed storeroom that's overstocked with office supplies. The mongoose hurriedly pushes some of the boxes and shelving back into place to cover up the hole in the wall before he hears the door leading out of the room shut on him. He attentively looks up, he was sure the door was open when he entered the room but he's doubting that now. Krasić walks up to the door but he feels something in his pocket, something has been planted on him.

'_Don't be so confident'_

A handwritten calling card, he doesn't react angrily because this just shows that there is a sign that the investment is worth something; but instead sprints to the door and looks into the foyer from behind the reception desk. Alex can't be found, he realises how bad this could be if they can't track him down quickly. He quickly swallows his pride and informs Rasmus of his failure.

"I've lost him." Krasić admits.

"Don't worry, I'll redeploy the surveillance drones once they are charged up. I'll put them outside his house, some will scan the streets and others will patrol as usual; as long as he is located before tonight then we don't have to tell Jeremy." Rasmus calmly replies. "Just stick to the numbers, I'll find Alex so the plan can proceed as normal."

"You told me he was not the one to worry about." Krasic explains.

"I know, just think of what will happen when Erin finds you." Rasmus taunts.

* * *

He would have celebrated wildly, but Alex is not out of the woods yet considering how easily Jeremy has managed to find him all around the world. What Alex has done has finally manage to control his invisibility, he had to concentrate hard for it to work, and he wasn't even sure if would work, but all he cares about is that he's escaped and that his plan worked. He doesn't know why it's suddenly beginning to behave and heed his commands, even if it's acting stubbornly, what matters is that it worked; he'll let Matt and Erin worry about those questions later.

Even if he looks calm on the outside, every second he checks behind his back just to make sure he's not being followed either by Jeremy's men or the police. Guided with his sense of direction and several glances at maps, he returns to the coffee shop that started all of this commotion. The scene looks docile, as if nothing had happened; except that the line is shorter, which is good news for him, having to reorder the coffee again. He stops briefly and tries to remember what he was meant to order. There were two long blacks but that's about all he can't muster inside his head. He re-enters the café having checked that there was no one about to ambush him and waits a short time before being served. This simple task he was sent to complete has finally finished as he carries the cardboard insert with four cups of coffee back down the street. He's still on the look out, with his current luck, someone is most likely going to come after him. Much to his relief, that situation doesn't eventuate and he finally returns back.

If he's realised one thing, Alex Cooper can't simply stop being Alex Cooper; even if he is not working as a thief.


	31. Taking Over

**Chapter 31 – Taking Over**

**London, England. 12:07pm, 8****th**** November 2032.**

Since she has temporarily sidelined Alex, in terms of being active in the world of thievery, Erin takes over to figure what the next move needs to be. As soon as Alex was inside, she began planning with Matt.

"What have you found out?" Erin asks.

"I'm not sure what to look for exactly, I mean; there's the Capitol building, various museums, the U.S Treasury, the mint, not to mention several private buildings which he could target." Matt says.

"He's not in Washington, all you proved is that his plane is there." Erin explains.

"Really, how do you know?"

"He came to see us."

"What did he say?"

"The usual." Erin says casually. "Wanting to work with him and all that, but he did say that if we wanted to join his heist, we had to be there by 6pm tonight."

"You didn't say yes did you?" Matt asks concernedly.

"I didn't say anything, he left shortly after."

"We have to find out what he's planning, or even where he is would be a place good place to start." Matt explains.

"I know where he is."

"You do?"

"Threadneedle Street." Erin answers.

"Do you have an exact address?" Matt asks as he begins to search for the place on his computer.

"No."

There is silence as Matt realises what Jeremy is planning to do.

"He's going after the Bank of England, he's on the same street as the bank." Matt explains.

"I highly doubt that." Erin responds. "It's a fortress, never been broken into, nothing has ever been stolen, it's a suicide mission."

"I'm just saying, it has to be more than a coincidence." Matt insists.

"Why don't we find out?" Erin asks. "You need to come down to London as soon as possible, I've got an idea."

**5:48pm**

"Like I've said before, you are insane." Matt comments at this latest idea Erin has thought up. They don't have long before the 6pm deadline is reached, after which they don't know what may happen.

"Plot twist, I'm sane and you're risk averse." Erin jokes back through an earpiece.

"You've got a point with that." Matt responds dejectedly.

"Just make sure you have that quadcopter in place for when I need it." Erin instructs, waiting on top of the building at the opposite end of the street to the bank in the night. She has taken Alex's custom backpack given by Matt for her own use and also taken his cane since she doesn't want to use the family heirloom. She sits casually underneath a solar panel angled at 45 degrees to shelter herself from the rain that's falling in the single digit Celsius temperature. She rests the cane horizontally on her lap and looks at her chosen thieving outfit. Erin does not care greatly about the Cooper's obsession with the colour blue; every article of clothing is black; from the lightweight long sleeve waterproof jacket, to the skin tight pants and right to her set of runners. Blue is not as stealthy as black in the night, nor is her highly unusual light tan fur colour, which is her prime motivation for covering up in stealthy black. She's even considered spray painting her tail in black when doing a heist and washing it out later, but it would be too difficult to do every time she wanted to do a heist, which was getting more frequent by the month. Matt brought down all of her clothing from her apartment and, once he arrived in London, began redistributing the equipment.

She puts on the glasses Matt handed to her so she can see the footage from the quadcopter as it flies down the street and covertly peers into buildings, looking for any sign of the skunk. If they do find him… that's the part where Matt thinks she's insane for trying to do what she thinks she can do. She turns on the glasses and sees the view the quadcopter is giving Matt back at Tim's house, which Erin allowed Matt to use whilst they do this.

"It's going for a first pass now." Matt announces as the drone banks onto the street, hovering 4 stories above the ground in the designated drone flight paths directly over the existing roads. In the dark, she can't see anything useful coming from the footage that is being transmitted to her; mainly because it's too dark.

"Do you have a thermal setting on that camera? I can't see anything." Erin asks.

"I wasn't looking for them visually." Matt explains. "I only needed the camera so I could make sure I could see what it sees, I could have just set it on autopilot and done that but I thought that perhaps you'd like to see what's going on."

"What are you getting at?" Erin asks, wanting matt to go straight to the point.

"I got their internet network names." Matt explains. "Now I just have to pinpoint each network's position and crack them open."

"That's going to take too long." Erin comments.

"The good news is that I got the network of every building on the street." Matt says.

"Even the bank?" Erin wonders.

"Yeah, anyone can get the came of a network if they get within it's range." Matt explains.

"You don't consider that he's already inside?" Erin jokes.

"Don't be stupid." Matt answers, not picking up on the sarcasm. "Most of the buildings are commercial, leaving the minority…"

"I was joking." Erin explicitly states.

"Oh, I didn't know." Matt apologises as his computer starts to build a 3D map of the surroundings based on the geo-positioning of the WIFI networks in each building. As each network is progressively cracked, with easy to guess passwords beaten in less than half a second, he sends a program into the networks in each of these buildings. The program uses the WIFI to act like sonar, bouncing the waves off objects in the room and timing how long it takes for the reflected wave to return. This builds the interiors of each room inside the buildings.

"It's starting work now." Matt says. More than half of the networks have been cracked.

"What's left?" Erin asks, hoping to get into some action soon before the time ticks over past 6pm.

"Mainly businesses," Matt comments. "There's one residential apartment who's password is unusually strong."

Matt checks the readout on the progress of hacking into each network.

"The password is more than 50 characters long." Matt announces.

"Do you think that has to be it?" Erin asks, itching to get out from the cover even if it means getting wet.

"I won't be sure until I crack the password." Matt responds.

"Get the drone to come back here, I'm going to take a look myself." Erin says, getting up and staring down the street. "You won't be able to crack the password in less than 8 minutes anyway."

Matt is hesitant about proceeding with Erin's side of the plan, mainly because of what it involves is dangerous. Nevertheless, he sends the drone to near where Erin is standing amongst the solar panels. Erin can see the quadcopter even in the dark thanks to the mandatory red and green lights on the side of each of the rotor guards to determine which way it's facing.

"Okay, ready." Erin commands as she puts the cane into the grabber on the backpack, getting Matt to fly the drone over to the end of the building. It hovers over the middle of the street at the same height as the roof. She stares down the building and looks for the point from which to jump. She bounces on her toes twice before breaking into a sprint. She runs until she reaches the end, leaps off the edge of the building into a gap which she can't jump in one go. This is where the drone comes in; she has one foot out in front of her to plant squarely on the main body of the drone, which Matt keeps stable. As the drone begins to take her weight for the brief milliseconds, Matt has to increase the throttle to the maximum in order to provide a platform for her to leap off instead of falling into a street. Using the drone as a stepping-stone, Erin leaps as far as she can with her arms outstretched to grab onto the edge of the building; even with her ability and this help, it still wasn't an easy jump. She grabs onto the edge of the buildings and quickly scurries up onto the safety of flat ground.

"That was too close." Matt remarks, having seen Erin come close to falling.

"Close enough is fine by me." Erin responds back, looking at the buildings ahead. "Where's the place I have to go to?"

"Penthouse, 2 blocks along, windows around the edge." Matt explains as she looks up and sees what he is talking about. The pointed oval shape is nothing like the straight edged façade of the main building itself. It is several stories above her level; she estimates it's on the 10th floor of the building.

"I'm not going to be climbing that without some extra equipment." Erin notes, the dark tinted windows are all flush with the building, allowing for no crevices or spots to use for climbing. She thinks back to the drone.

"How powerful is the quadcopter?" Erin asks as she trots over to the edge of her current building.

"Not enough to lift you if that's what you're thinking." Matt reminds her. "I'm going to look at the building with the drone quickly and scout for a way in."

Erin sees the lights of the drone move gradually up into the sky as it hones in on the building. She watches the imagery through her glasses, the first and most obvious detail being that all of the blinds have been drawn; something is being hidden from them.

"I can't see anything inside." Matt explains as the drone strafes around the building.

"Go onto the roof." Erin commands, hoping that there's some way in from there. Matt flies the quadcopter up onto the roof as Erin instructed and instantly she sees something of interest.

"Look, there's a winch. If you can unhook it and drag it down, I can use it to climb up." Erin notices. Matt begins to find all of the frailties in this plan.

"That winch is for a window washing robot in case it drops off the building, it'll be automatically programmed to only go out at certain times and…" Matt worries. Erin is having none of his excuses, she doesn't need to be protected.

"Fling the robot off the edge and it'll drag the winch down." Erin calmly instructs.

"With what?" Matt asks.

"The drone."

"I don't have anything I could hook it under." Matt says.

"Fly the drone underneath the cable and pull up, that will dislodge the robot out of it's charging station. Then you'll do the same thing to get the robot off the edge." Erin explains, conscious of time. "We don't have any time to bicker about this."

"Okay." Matt says, taking a deep breath, knowing that this piece of technology is going to get some scratches at best and possibly lodged, stuck or even destroyed from doing this. Knowing that Erin is watching his efforts, he takes the quadcopter in close to the ground. The steel cable he's aiming for is horizontally level with the roof itself from the spooled winch near the edge of the roof to a small undercover hutch where the washing robot is charging overnight. He gets the drone to fly level directly underneath this section of cable. Matt is a picture of nervous concentration as he hovers his finger over a joystick attached to his computer to control the drone precisely.

He presses down on the trigger and the 4 propellers receive the extra electric energy to power them to their maximum levels. Initially, the quadcopter struggles to lift the cable up; but once the washing robot is out of it's hutch, it became easier to manoeuvre it to out over the side of the building. Erin watches as Matt tilts the drone violently downwards to let the cable slip off it's back, but it causes the quadcopter to drop violently as well before recovering and regaining altitude. The washing robot flies down the building, letting gravity do it's work. It goes down all the way past Erin's line of sight before she sees the cable stretch until it becomes tight before settling as the flailing robot stabilises nearly 2 stories above the ground. Erin checks her watch, only 3 minutes till the deadline is up.

"Bring the drone back around." Erin instructs. "I have to get to that cable."

Matt does what she says and flies the drone to bridge the gap across the buildings. She takes a run up before competing the same task, albeit clearing the gap completely to the other side this time. She waits for Matt to fly the drone across again before looking forward at the cable she has to grip onto. Once the quadrotor has settled, she takes aim at her target. She runs up and, for the third time, lands on the drone before leaping off the top to reach the cable and grip on tight, wrapping her legs around the cable to prevent herself from slipping. Once stable, she begins the climb up to the top at a steady but quick pace, reaching the top in less than a minute.

"I'm in." Erin says as she climbs onto the top of the roof, spotting a door leading inside. It's been locked from the inside with no visible lock on the outside for her to pick. So she couches down and quietly knocks the door with the back of her middle finger at various spots around the lock until she hears the deeper tone she was looking for; indicating the electronic deadbolt lock is situated there. She reaches behind her and takes out the cane with her right hand and spins it around so the shaft is facing up. Erin grasps it with both hands before lining up her shot. Using the cane as a battering ram, she thrusts it at the door, piecing a hole through the door as well as the electronics controlling the lock; rendering them useless. She twists the handle and opens the door before shutting it quickly to cover herself. Erin moves down the few stairs, taking off her glasses, before reaching a second door to the interior, which does not have the same security as the previous door; it has no security at all.

Erin waits for any sounds on the other side but hears nothing. Slowly, she twists the handle of the door and pushes outwards, peaking down the wooden floorboard stairs to her right which leads into what looks like to be a normal apartment building. Erin puts one foot in front and slowly puts pressure on the ground, making sure every single step is silent. A wry smile comes to her face purely from the enjoyment of performing such an activity, but it is quickly wipes away when the door on her right opens suddenly just as she's about to get to the bottom of the stairs. She presses herself against the wall and since the door opens outward, she is behind cover. The husky shuts the door without looking before moving into the main apartment where all of the lights automatically turn on and the blinds retract to reveal the London skyline through the rain.

Erin notes the door to her right before she begins to shadow the suited husky as he goes into the kitchen, getting a glass of water from the motion activated tap. Once the husky moves into the main lounge area, Erin sneaks into the kitchen, using the marble topped island as cover. She peaks around the corner and sees the lights being manually switched off as a giant hologram is displayed over the entire room. Schematics for a heist are the first thing that comes into her mind. All of the levels and floor plans for the building including below ground and into the vaults. Using a tablet, the husky adds a section to the schematics using a tablet. This purple coloured section shows what underground the aqua building above. He twists the building around to an angle to get a better view of his added section below before running a simulation of what is going to happen.

Several yellow coloured cubes load into two rooms, one on top of the other, which represent the gold. Along with the time in the bottom right, he sees the gold cubes become depleted as they pass through a hole in the ground before disappearing from view. Satisfied, he quits the simulation and grabs the picture over to his tablet, which combines the two images into a single file that is downloaded onto his tablet. Once completed, he deletes the underground section before turning off the hologram and walking back into the room with his glass of water. Erin meanwhile keeps her cover, and once he is gone, she informs Matt of what she's seen.

"I saw what they're going to do." Erin whispers as she presses into her earpiece. "They're robbing the gold from the Bank of England via an underground tunnel of some sort."

"All of it?" Matt asks with surprise.

"From what I saw." Erin whispers.

"That would make it the biggest heist ever by a long margin, bigger than your dad's Mona Lisa heist by many magnitudes." Matt responds.

"Let's not get carried away here." Erin modestly replies.

"Almost £41 billion worth of gold, not to mention anything in the other vaults like cash, government securities and other things." Matt explains. "That's over 380 tonnes or 31000 bars of gold inside the vaults."

"Ambitious." Erin notes.

"It's not possible, it can't be done in a single night; even in the winter." Matt explains. "They'd have to remove more than 1 bar every 2 seconds in order to do it fast enough, and that's without any noise or raising any alarms like pressure sensors, motion detectors, security cameras, silent alarms…"

"I get it, it's not possible to do in a single night. Then they'd have to use some sort of counterweight to act as a decoy." Erin replies.

"380 tonnes of it." Matt replies.

"They're all gathered in a room back on the east side, send the drone around there to see if you can get a peek inside and find all of the tunnels that go underneath the bank like the underground tracks or sewers."

"I'll avoid the sewers." Matt instantly says.

"Afraid to get dirty?" Erin replies.

"I…I don't want you to get hurt, you could slip and Alex won't be…" Matt tries to explain, but he's fearful that he will be exposed.

"Alex?" Erin asks softly. "Or you?"

Matt hesitates, pausing to reflect on what he should say next. The reflection turns to muffled laughter in Erin's earpiece followed by what sounds like… muffled sobbing. Emotions are getting into the situation, which is detrimental for Erin since she's in deep. In hindsight, maybe the best thing was for her not to ask the question, but it's all said and done now.

"I'm… I'm sorry." She whispers, now looking for a way out of this place so she can deal with this without the threat of being discovered by a highly dangerous criminal who will then almost certainly imprisoner her before delivering the news to Alex.

"You're beautiful Erin… and you're smart, funny, athletic, kind, strong… you're simply, perfect." Matt replies, expressing his feelings for her that have been so pent up since the day he first saw her. Now that he has this opportunity, he's not going to let it go. Erin would have wanted this to happen when she was not trapped. She decides to make a break for it, couching low and sneaking back to the where she entered from with the cane in her hand. She moves up the stairs but once she's at the top, she hears the sound of the door downstairs opening. She twists her head, her body like a statue, and watches as the skunk walks out of the door; followed by…

Erin knows she has to keep quiet and still despite what she is seeing, the four members of her own gang walking behind the husky with the last one coming as a surprise; Tyson is there as well. Betrayal is the first word that pops up into her head, but she quickly tries to get that out of her head as her conventional thoughts fight back against what she is seeing. Could this be a plot spanning months? Getting people to infiltrate her then leave just as the skunk shows up. It makes sense to Erin but she doesn't accept that outcome. The 5 hostages walk around the corner into the main living room with Jeremy returning inside as Erin waits for them to be out of sight before quickly turning around and leaving the way she came.

"Matt." Erin asks quickly through her earpiece. "Get me Tyson's real time location."

"Why? What's happening?" Matt asks concernedly.

"I don't know how, but they've got Tyson." Erin announces as she stands on top of the roof with the cane placed back into the grabber.

Matt places his hands over his head in disappointment with himself before re-focusing on the task as hand.

"Okay." Matt says as he takes in a breath and begins to search for his phone. A quick check shows him nothing.

"The GPS has been taken out of his phone, I won't know where it is." Matt explains.

"Then get CCTV, anything like that." Erin instruct as she moves back to the edge off the roof.

"What are you going to do?" Matt asks.

"Find out what they're doing of course." Erin says happily as she grabs the cable and jumps over the edge of the building, sliding down the cable with ease. Once she nears the bottom, she grabs harder on the cable to slow down in order to sum up the landing. She lets go at the bottom and lands perfectly on the ground. Just as she does so, her phone begins ringing.

"Erin." Alex greets.

"Done with work?" Erin asks cheekily, her own work not done yet.

"Listen, Antonio just called. He says the Diamond Heist is ready to go, he's got all the equipment ready and everything and that we have to go tonight. I want to know if you want in." Alex asks.

"Jeremy has Tyson." Erin explains.

"Jeez." Alex exclaims.

"And he has my gang as well."

"Woah."

"I'm not going to Belgium tonight Alex. I'm going after Jeremy, he's going after billions of pounds worth of gold; a lot more than what's going to be in Antwerp, okay. You can go if you want, follow his demands or we can do this, ruin Jeremy's plans and take some for ourselves; which do you think sounds better?" Erin asks.

"I'll do whatever you want me to." Alex immediately replies, being so loyal to his sister.

"Alex, don't just say that because you're my brother, say it because you actually want to do it instead of saying what you think I want to hear." Erin advises.

"Then, what do you want me to do? Working at the clinic wasn't half bad." Alex replies.

"I want you to make up your own mind." Erin answers.

"I want to help you, that's what I want to do." Alex replies more confidently than before.

"Okay. Meet me at Bank underground station as soon as you can, and wear something unrestrictive." Erin instructs. Alex knows what she means when she makes this statement.

"Okay, see you there." Alex replies. As soon as the phone conversation stops, the earpiece springs into life with Matt shouting wildly on the other side.

"Run! Police are coming!"

Erin looks for the nearest shadow to hide in next to the building before looking for a way to get some height on the approaching police. She looks across the street to the older building with more crevices and ledges to climb and instinctively runs towards it, already drawing up a path in her mind to get to the top. She jumps up the wall, scrambling up to get some extra height to grab onto the ledge. She picks herself up before strafing along the thin ledge, taking out the cane for the next move. Erin leaps perpendicular to the wall towards a horizontal flagpole, using the cane to swing on it before leaping onto the next thin ledge. Looking up, she jumps with the cane trenched upward to hook onto the second storey window ledge. She pulls herself up using the cane with her hands before reaching onto the ledge itself and pulling herself up. She repeats the same feat twice to get to the roof and to safety. Once up on top, she sees Matt's drone hovering nearby; watching her progress.

"That was close, they should be driving past right now." Matt says, relieved. But that relief is short lived as the power to his drone fails, causing it to fall out of the sky and down onto the roof of the building from about 5 metres up. It hits with an obvious thud but doesn't shatter on impact.

"I'm being hacked! The drone's gone. I fear I'm…" Matt quickly says before being cut off as well. Erin gathers her surroundings to look for any immediate threats but she can't see any. She's expecting one of the police or Le Paradox to interact with her but it doesn't come. She then hears a scuffle developing below her. She runs to the edge of the building to take a peak, a standoff is emerging between the police and what looks like a lot of hired help. The police are covering behind their vehicles whilst the others advance on their position. The quick movement of something attracts her attention; someone has thrown a concussion grenade at the group of henchmen who scatter like ants. Erin immediately moves away from the ledge and waits for the disorienting explosion.

After the loud bang, she peaks back over to look at the situation below. All of the guards are on their knees or on the ground covering their ears in agony as the police move in to arrest them. Before she can look much further, she catches a glimpse of the grenadier who took out a whole bunch of people at once. Dressed in a dark blue singlet, despite the freezing temperature and rain, and short cargo pants which holds up a utility belt which Erin quickly analyses to determine the arsenal of this attacker. Two guns on either side, two more concussion grenades hooked onto the right side as well as other things which Erin does not have the time to see. Their eyes cross paths briefly, but it's long enough for Erin to know who it is. Betrayal doesn't go through her mind first, more the need to run away now before they overwhelm her with their power in numbers. She sees the Fennec fox through a concussion grenade up to the top of the building whilst yelling, "She's up there!" Erin runs and dives over and air conditioning duct until the explosion passes before sprinting away to the other side of the building.

She spots something over the edge that could hide her, a steel sewer cap in the middle of the road surrounded by a traffic jam. She flings herself over the edge, holding onto the top of the building before letting go to fall down one level, then one more before she sums up the landing. Erin leaps out onto the street, aiming for the top of a truck. She performs a forward roll on landing before immediately jumping off onto the centre of the road right next to the sewer cap. Paying no attention to people who could stare at her from their cars, she lifts the heavy steel cap out of place before jumping down far enough to get below street level before pulling the cap over her head. She stays at this level as she searches for the glasses on in her pocket, careful not to drop them into the pitch-black abyss. She feels along the left side to change the view from darkness into a hue of green. After activating the night vision mode on the glasses, she slides down to the bottom of the chute and into the stagnant water inside the sewer.


End file.
